You Capture - Spring (Again)

If it weren't for Beth, I wouldn't have much at all to offer this week. But I did get to spend time with her and her kids so this is what looked like Spring to me:

Then I walked at Striebel Pond and since so many people really like dandelions I tried to get an extra good shot of one. This one is SOOC and I just loved the colors and the detail so it made the cut:

Also a Springtime event at Striebel Pond - the nesting swan:

And the flying redwinged blackbird. Now I know you see these birds all year 'round but I only capture shots like this in the Spring of '10 so I included it. Doesn't it look strange?

Now back to 'Thanks to Beth' shots. I got to go with her to beautiful downtown Chicago this week so I thought to capture Spring in the Loop from the 17th Floor.

This view is looking down at the Chicago Public Library:

And this one I took while hanging out the back door over the fire escape on the 17th floor of the building we visited. I'm afraid of heights and it makes my feet tingle to look at it:

And then I accidentally (really!) caught this series that could only happen in the Spring when the days start out cool and then unexpectedly turn beautiful:

And now just one more, I promise. It's not a good picture (because I had to rush my shot. I didn't want them to catch me photographing them) but it had to be included because it says downtown and it says Spring. I saw this family in their warm weather attire walking their dog. And they were doing it in the Old Navy Flagship store. Go figure.

For more fun Spring Again You Captures visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry. You can lurk or join in. Either way is lots of fun.

You Capture - Spring

Normally I would do my best to hide these the pesky parts of this picture but in all honesty, nothing says Spring like these doggone dandelions: (oh..and the robin)

Spring, for me, is also the lilac. I could never say enough about its fragrance and its beauty:

And the rest of my Spring pictures were taken during the March of Dimes Walk for Babies.


To see more pictures of Spring (and who could ever get enough of this amazing season?), visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry. And, if you really want to have some fun, join in. Post a couple of pictures and let us see what you've got. You know you want to.

You Capture - Sweet

Really? I wasn't going to participate this week? When I got to go on a field trip with my granddaughter to a bakery? When all the plantings that I have done around our house were done with one goal in mind - have something blooming all the time and that something should smell sweet?

So I went out to capture sweet.

Here's Anna decorating her sweet confection like a professional.

And now on to the flowers. Where to begin? (Actually you'll see that I didn't know where to stop.)


And then the sweetest flower of all. This shrub was chosen solely for it's incredibly sweet smell. It's called a Korean Spice Viburnum and they don't get any sweeter smelling than this. The last picture isn't the best picture but it's the picture that proves the sweetness of the viburnum.




For more sweetness, visit Beth's You Capture - Sweet.

You Capture - Fresh

I've been working on this one all week. When I walk, all I think about is what out here looks really fresh? And I haven't come up with much. I did get this bud:

And freshly bloomed flowers that are still growing are fresh, right?

Even if the background is a snow shovel blade.

And finally, ever since my childhood, nothing says fresh to me like seeing the bedding blowing in the breeze on one of the first warm days of Spring.

For more fresh You Capture photos, visit Beth at ishouldbefoldinglaundry.

It's Coming!

Although there has been for several weeks, now there's no doubt about it. It's coming. Slowly, surely, inexorably working it's way toward all of us. Spring. Today I heard birds I haven't heard in a long, long time. This week I saw and heard two cranes fly overhead that routinely do so every summer. I haven't heard or seen them since last Fall. The days are a little longer and I can see my koi stirring in the bottom of the water garden. There's a thin cover of ice over the small pond, but beneath, two goldfish slowly maneuver around. About a week and a half ago, we saw tiny shoots of daffodils starting to emerge from the frozen soil. Then it snowed again and again. Just like it's been doing for 3 solid months now. And every day as I walked past the spot where we'd seen the shoots, I'd wonder what was going on under all that snow. Did the little shoots freeze and die? Were they stuck at the place where they were when we last saw them? Kind of frozen in time?. Or was it possible that even under a blanket of snow, they were aware of lengthening days and slightly warmer temperatures? Well the snow has melted and look what's happened.

They've been bravely growing the whole time. And tomorrow is March 1st. Although my mother always said that the real changes in the weather don't start until St. Patrick's day, on March 1st we have little changes. And it's SUCH a relief. I think this winter might actually end after all.