Afternoon at the Arboretum

I hope my readers got out to enjoy the glorious weather today. Yesterday afternoon was equally beautiful, and my walking buddy and I took a picture of this blooming crabapple tree in our neighborhood. She said, "It looks like a scene on a jigsaw puzzle."

This morning we took another walk in our neighborhood in our quest to get 10,000 steps per day (which, as it turns out, was completely unnecessary for me), and we saw these daffodils. The first picture is miniature daffodils, although I'm not sure you can tell, and the second one is daffodils I thought were cool because they are the opposite of what I usually see - the petals are yellow and the trumpet is white!

Jilly Moose was saying that it had been so long since she had gotten to see us, so I suggested going for a hike. First we met at Crema Cafe, and they had this colorful Peeps diorama.

Jilly Moose wanted to walk on the Capital Trail, so Travalon suggested the part with the mile-long boardwalk in McFarland. We drove there in our own cars and walked, keeping social distancing, then when we got to the end of the boardwalk, we took a path into the woods. By then I had walked five miles and was well over my 10,000 steps for the day, and it was almost two, so we went to Waypoint for lunch. Unfortunately their patio is closed, but we got our food to go and sat at a picnic table in the park behind the building.

Then Jilly Moose suggested going to the Arboretum, and I was game for that because this is the weekend when all the crabapples are blooming. As it turned out, the magnolias were still blooming, and the lilacs were blooming, and this beautiful redbud was blooming too.

 magnolia

 I love this shade of purple lilac!

 magnolia

I had imagined our wedding photos would be something like this, in front of frothy white crabapples, but the year we got married, the crabapples were not yet in bloom so we had photos taken in front of magnolias instead.

Travalon is a little tired after walking almost seven miles!

Jilly Moose matches this crabapple tree!

Rich sent me some photos from his garden too. This tulip looks like it was one of the ones that was around the carillon last spring. I don't know what happened to all its friends...

And here is the little redbud in Rich's yard! Remember when it was just a baby?

They have crabapples blooming in Minnesota too. Here is Pa Hat wearing the hat I brought him from Ireland, in front of some lovely pink crabapple trees.

And this has nothing to do with flowers (although it does have to do with gardens), but I just really liked this photo my uncle sent of the koi in their garden pond.

We will have to remember how beautiful today was tomorrow, when it will be cold and rainy. I have my sunburn to remind me!

Famous Hat