Mid-Day in Mid-March (in Zone 7a)

~The Tidal Basin - looking out towards the Washington Monument~

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I haven't posted images for May Blooms Gardens "Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day" in what seems like forever (with forever, in reality, being March of 2011 - so exactly one year ago).  But today I found myself on a quick lunchtime outing at The Tidal Basin in Washington, DC - right on the cusp of exploding cherry blossoms, and it made me smile - no, these aren't my garden's blooms - but they are still pretty wonderful.  Even with images taken with a Blackberry smartphone.  I know, it's cheating (and the truth is, there are two different types of daffodils and two different types of camellias blooming in the yard of my rental home, and I've meant to photograph them and put them in these pages, but we know how good intentions often are:  just that, good intentions).  But - these cherry blossoms belong to all of us, right?  You and me.

It was a treat to see them - just the start of the show - lots of pinks from the buds, some still tight - then the whites of the fully open flowers.  The warm temperatures broke a record, and like alot of places and observations, everything is happening a few weeks or more early this year.  The cherry blossoms in Washington, DC are no different. 

So happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day from a garden that I've borrowed for the ocassion - I'll need to share my own blooms here, in Virginia, soon - and the ones I find in my neglected garden in South Carolina (when I visit in April).  But I am happy to have these to share today.

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~Thomas Jefferson Memorial~

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~Thomas Jefferson Memorial, looking into the sunshine on a recording-breaking warm day~

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~cherry blossoms, cascading over the sidewalk along the Tidal Basin~

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Comments

[Janet, The Queen of Seaford]

Wonderful pictures, DC in the spring for Cherry Blossom Festival always has a special place in my heart.

[Pam]

Thanks Janet. A work friend and I rushed down there at lunch today (from Arlington) on the metro - we'd heard they were starting to open up (and of course, we'd seen some in Northern Virginia already). I haven't seen this since I was a kid, and we traveled up for the Cherry Blossom Festival - it was so pretty, my Blackberry phone camera didn't do the colors justice, but oh well. (I hope this much too early spring doesn't mean that we will have a hot and dry summer on the East Coast, but I fear it does).

[katherine]

hot dry and BUGGY, with an uptick in vibriosis, and earlier and more hurricanes...?
Wonderful photos of a spectacular city!
Spring here is altogether random, some azaleas are already fully blown while others are just budding.

[Blackswampgirl Kim]

Wow... I love your photos, but it feels like it's way too early for the cherry blossoms to be blooming in D.C.!

[Kay Wade]

What is it about Spring that makes us want to write it all down, and take picture after picture? Can't wait for the photos in April, when you get back to SC. Politics as usual down here, lol, but hope all is going good with the new job.

[Les]

Your smartphone gives the pictures an old Kodachrome quality, like a postcard from the 50's.

[Karen Karsten]

I just discovered your site and wanted to say how much I enjoy it! I was researching "Chocolate Vine" as I decide between that or a clematis to cover a long, old and rotting fence (and honestly am still undecided). But I love your posts, your insights on life and gardening, and your willingness to share as you explore your own emotions and life experiences, which resonate quite strongly with my own (and probably many others' as well!).

Thanks for being here...!

KK