March 9 through April 20, 2019

It has been a beautiful spring although the flowers have had a short life initially due to cold and more recently, after the warm up, due to strong storms. 



I left work early yesterday and when I got home Raleigh where I live was under a tornado watch and Durham where I work had a tornado warning. 



Week before last when I was at work I heard a very loud explosion.



Looking out the window there was a thick plume of dark smoke.



It was a gas explosion and sadly caused a number of injuries and a fatality.



It is scary and sad how something like that can occur out of the blue.



I think it was caused by construction equipment hitting a natural gas line but my understanding is they're still trying to figure out how it happened. 



Today was a beautiful day after all the storms yesterday.



I finally managed to spot one of the bald eagles at Shelly Lake. 



I haven't seen the babies yet but I heard they'll probably be venturing out of the nest soon.



It's amazing to me how fast trees have leafed out this year.



They tiny leaves have burst into full leaves faster than I've remembered seeing it happen in past years.

 

The cardinals are already harder to photograph because they have more leaf cover.



These photographs aren't chronological.



I'm jumping around between the weeks I took pictures.



My large azaleas above were bowed down by storms after I took the shot above so I went ahead and lopped them down a bit while I could reach them.



My back yard has already turned back into a jungle.



I meant to try to do some trimming before there was so much new growth.



Bill and I went to the WRAL Azalea Garden and the tulips were the big stars.



There were some azaleas blooming but the tulips were magnificent.



It was overcast when we were there but still lovely.



I was glad to have some blue sky today though tomorrow is going to be cloudy.



I don't think it's supposed to rain.



I hope not because I'm going to Oxford for Easter dinner.



It's only about an hour's drive but I would prefer it not to be a rainy one.



I'll be interested to see what's in bloom along the way although it was stormy there yesterday too so most of the blooms may be on the ground.



I like ground covers of blooms too so either way is pretty to me. I hope everyone who celebrates Easter has a good one.

January through March 8, 2019

I'm going to start with shots from this past week and move backwards to January 2019. 



It isn't unusual in the North Carolina Piedmont for early spring flowers to begin in late February and get hit by a cold snap in March.

 

What made this year unusual was that we had some warm days in early February and by the second week in February there were already quite a few early spring flowers.



The first 3 shots show what happened to those flowers that jumped the gun after we had some very cold nights.



I made a point of photographing as many flowers as possible as they began to bloom knowing they were unlikely to last very long.



It doesn't bother me how brief some of the spring blooms will be because it was actually nice to have a lot of February blooms no matter how brief.



I find expectations have a lot to do with how I feel in general.



It's not that I'm suggesting low expectations as a positive in all situations but as regards to the aspects outside my control like how long early flowers last, I don't have any expectations.



In general the older I get the less I let expectations cause me to be disappointed.



Of course that's easier when the majority of your life is over so no matter what happens it won't be interminable. 



I'll admit that I have to remind myself of that when I watch the news and even comedy about the current political situation.



Also, since I have an adult child who will hopefully have close to 5 more decades ahead, or maybe more, I don't want their life to be filled too long with the toxic politics we have in the United States.



I remember thinking there would never be anyone worse than Richard Nixon in the White House.



I think never is a good word to avoid.



That said, I don't want to contemplate a worse political situation than what we have now where I live.



I've almost reached the earliest shots I took between January and March.



There is something very beautiful to me about a still winter day.



I admire the patience of the fishers.



It's certainly seems like the life of a water bird is difficult.



There's something I like about the mass of gulls that look like tiny jewels from a distance.



When they start to fly they almost look like white moths from far away.



Reflections are always interesting to me.



The full moon through the trees is fun to watch.



I took the last shot with my cell phone of the downtown Durham, NC post office.