scraping ice in the middle of May

Not a lot, but ice nonetheless, on the windshield this morning!

some last PA photos

These are some last PA photos that were on my camera.  We'll be leaving here in less than a week -  Friday morning.

Even though it is COLD today - going down to 34 degrees tonight - springtime is turning into summer.  The buds and blossomings are giving way to the leafing, and the trees are getting greener and fuller every day.

I have my last visit with my young doctor up here tomorrow.  I came here a bald and sickly creature and am leaving feeling much stronger, with a smattering of fuzz on my head.  My doctor here, Michael Krauze MD, is just 33 years old and had the confidence to stop the chemo that I was on and change my drugs.  I wish I could bring him back to FL with me.

We will be going through South Carolina for Rocky's wedding, and then on down into the tropics, just in time for Hurricane season.   They tell me that Florida is hot already!

This is the last budding tree ...

 Some violets ...

 One of the last of the dogwoods ...

 Azaleas are blooming now ...

 ... and rhododendron ...

 The beautiful dogwood blooms giving way to the leafs ...

 A purple dress down at the "Strip" ...

 ... flowers at the strip ...

 Lunch at "Enrico's" ...

... 2 cars, 2 trucks, 2 bridges ...

 dogwood...

 some leafing that reminds me of Matisse ...

 Japanese maple tree.

more dogwood

It won't last much longer.  I'm loving it while it is here ...

more trees, hawks, and little flowers

Just a couple of days ago this tree up by the rabbit tree (see 2 posts down) was full of red buds.  Now, like magic, it has blossomed into a fully white tree, no sign of red anywhere:

 These are the 2 hawks who watch over everything around here ...

 Little flowers decorate the (un-grassed) ground almost everywhere ...

 ... and color creeps into our brown stick forest ...

trees

What is it about trees, that makes them such a constant presence in our lives?  I think that they must be like (guardian) angels.  

Once again this year I'm captivated by this particular tree's bud-leaf transformation.  One of the locals saw me photographing it last night and told me it was a hickory tree.

 The spring pastel colors are everywhere now ...

 ... the dogwood blossoms are most enchanting ...

Jubilee taking a snooze ... (getting rested up for her big trip back to Florida).

nightly walk

Every night after supper we take a walk around the apartments.  These are some photos from last night.

The white trees are getting more green as the white blossoms blow away.  They look like either snow or those white circles that come from a "hole punch" as the blow.

 Another kind of tree up by the rabbit tree.

 Still some beginning budding happening ...

 ... while other trees are almost fully leafed.

 First sighting of a dogwood blossom.

budding is getting complicated ...