The Cardinal Watching Billy

The trees have finished flowering, so now it's the azaleas' turn to bloom. And there's a cardinal in our courtyard! I've seen him twice now, and this time, he and Billy were really checking each other out.

More Springiness

All geese do is eat. Same for goslings.
Neat new growth on the bush, above. Below, Greg and I went to open the summer camp his friend's family used to go to. This is the cabin we stayed in. It was great weather the first day, but it rained the second day.
Here's one of the many truckfulls of leaves we raked from around the camp.
The woman, below, was helping to rake. Her grandparents started the camp that was a predecessor to this one. She's 87 years old, and still raking! She's really amazing.
I found this huge spider on my glove as I collected the leaves into trash barrels.
Below, only the red petals are growing on that bush. The pink ones fell from the tree above it.
The grounds crew raked up some of the petals.
Pink littered the ground everywhere.

Robin
Lilacs

It's finally spring time!

This is the park by our apartment. I love how well-used it is when the weather's nice. That's the Boston skyline in the background.
Baby leaves
Grackles are camera-shy, but I got this one! The males have really cool iridescent head coloring.

I love the sun shining on the flowering trees.
It's so interesting watching the seasons change everything. The trees are empty of leaves during winter, and you can see right through them. Then the buds start coming out, and the flowers, and before long, there will be huge leaves, thick and bright.
Easter with Greg's family. Back row: Paternal Grandma (Jean), Dad John, Mom Sue, Sister-in-law Shaney, Aunt Sally. Front row: Brother Mark, friends Logan and Marie, Greg, me.

San Diego!

Greg and I went to San Diego a couple of weeks ago. It was such a wonderful trip. We brewed beer, ate sushi, camped in the desert, ate Mexican food, saw my family, snuggled the family cat and dog, Greg turned 30, went to the Wild Animal Park and aboard the USS Midway, walked along the beach...Awesome!

Click here if you'd like to see the photos.

Late Spring

Winter hung on for a long time this year, but it's finally getting letting go. Yay.

My Second Cross Country Experience

Greg and I went to New Hampshire for the weekend. We went cross country skiing and stayed at a Bed & Breakfast. I'd been cross country skiing once before, about two years ago when I visited my friend Anna in Finland. This time, I took a lesson, which made a huge difference. Pretty quickly, we moved from the green trails (easy) to the blue trails (more difficult).
Here I come...

Crash!
Luckily, we went over the process of getting up from a fall in the lesson. First, get your skis in the air so you can untangle your feet.





And I'm back up. Even with the fall, I had a really fun time. Greg, too.


This Snow Coach brings people up to the top of Mt. Washington when it's snowy. You can also hike up like Greg and I did. Mt. Washington is known for having the worst weather in the world.

Below, that tree is growing out of the rock.

This time I didn't fall; I just wanted to cool off.
Most of the snow in Boston was melted by this point in the season, but further north and at higher elevation, there was still plenty of snow. We even had light snowfall on our second day out.
The snow was incredibly fluffy and light. We had an awesome time.