I took these photos on a walk down the street behind my house last week. I do love to see all the tall trees in my back yard, whether I'm in my back yard or beyond the back fence!
I've been watering and hoping and hoping and watering ... trying to save this pine tree in my front yard. In March, I could see the new growth! And there are little pine cones all over its branches. The live oak at the right has been doing fine, but the pines have struggled. This one will make it, I think.
Close-up of the new growth at the tops of the branches.
From another angle ...
The two pine trees in the side yard are okay ... one is more okay than the other! But both have lots of new growth on them! Hooray!!
I think it's about a week or so early for the best bluebonnet-viewing, but I couldn't resist taking these photos yesterday on my drive home from Austin. I may go back to the Chappell Hill area (see the last 3 photos here) in a couple of weeks and take more. It's all so gorgeous.
Along the highway, west of Giddings, TX.
Also along the highway, between Giddings and Brenham, TX
In Chappell Hill - how would you like to have your whole front yard knee-deep in bluebonnets?
Beautiful!
A bit north of Chappell Hill - a field of bluebonnets along FM 1155.
Driving home from Austin yesterday, I was struck by how green everything is -- the trees, the medians, the roadsides, the hills ... quite a difference from when I drove to Austin and back last August and October -- after months and MONTHS of drought. This is such a joy!!
Even as I got into the flatter parts of this drive, past Brenham and heading toward Tomball and Spring, it was still green, green, green as far as I could see. How marvelous!
I took all these while driving home one day recently. It was so spectacular, all the way north on Northcrest! I couldn't help it! And yes ~ it took longer than usual to get home that day!!
This is a close-up of the tree above. I don't know what all these trees are called, but they're gorgeous!
Looking north on Northcrest ...
Wow! Someone made a good choice many years ago - this tree is beautiful every single year!
I took these photos about 2 weeks ago, and I'll take more soon. This stage of each spring is just fascinating to me, though - the very beginning of everything becoming new again! Even though we had a very mild winter, these are still wonderful to see.
This is the oak that doesn't lose its leaves in fall. Its leaves all turn a pretty reddish-brown and then brown, and then they hang on the tree all winter! The first year I lived here, I thought I had killed it! But this is what it looks like when the new leaves begin to show - pushing out the old brown ones. It'll become very thick and green, of course. It's a fantastic tree.
Here's where all that yellow pollen (dust) comes from - and with so many of these pines all over the area, in the forests and in yards, the yellow dust gets everywhere!
This gap, just to the left of the sego palm there, is where I lost a tree last year. No matter what I did, no matter how much extra water I gave it - I lost it. When the guys were taking it down, I could see that it didn't stand a chance. The inside was hollow and rotted - no amount of water could have saved it.
And here's that oak tree again, the same tree as in the 2nd photo above. Four days later, and what a difference! Those leaves come in fast when they decide to come in!!
Yesterday morning, my yard was filled with birds of various sizes and types: small ones flitting all over the place, chasing each other, it seemed; a couple of mockingbirds; a dove; and a woodpecker high up on one of the elms.
He stayed a long time, so I finally decided to try for a video ... and here it is!
And yes, you should be able to tell that the ash and elm trees have begun to put out this year's leaves. I think they're confused, but then, we really didn't have much of a winter around here!
In very northwestern Massachusetts, there are Williamstown and Jiminy Peak Ski Resort (photos below). What a lovely place -- cold, cold, cold, but lovely! Here is where Robert, Danielle, and Simone come to ski on weekends.
This is the building from which the main ski lift begins. I took the photo from inside the lodge, and it was definitely colder out there than inside! It was snowing a bit, even though they had the snow-making machines going full blast, too!
Here's the guide to which ski runs are where.
More and more skiers were starting to show up.
Snow-making machines in action on one of the runs.
What looks like fog rising from behind the trees is really the man-made snow being made on a different ski run, one not completely visible from the lodge.
And a couple of little videos ...
Now it's beginning to clear up ... and get more and more crowded with skiers, too!
More and more crowded ...
Here's Simone when she came in for lunch -- goggles are off, and the rest came off very soon.
Cutie!
Here is a view of the whole ski area from the highway as we were starting our drive back to New York. It's a very beautiful place, day or night, snowing or clear!
