Mama's Moments of Zen, The Sequel

Last week, the weather started perking up (finally) and spring was literally springing to life everywhere.  The flowering trees were breathtaking and leaves were finally visible on the majority of trees.  It was awesome to see after such an iffy spring.

A couple weeks ago I saw a really cool picture in a photo contest at the university that looked at a dandelion scientifically.  Dandelions are the official flower of UR, which forces you to see the beauty in the flower itself, instead of just seeing the annoying weed.  But this winning photo was looking at the dandelion in its seed phase, and it was striking.  A few days later I happened to spot a perfect dandelion out in our yard as I walked to the car, and I thought about photographing it...but Jacob was going to be late to school, so I didn't.  I looked for it when I came home but it seemed to be spent (but maybe I just looked at the wrong one?).  But later I saw this one, and I knew I had to take a picture.  Sort of pretty for a weed, isn't it?

I suggest clicking to enlarge it for the full effect!

On Wednesday it was a rather pretty day outside--the perfect temperature, a bit of sun, and just lovely.  Even though I was feeling lazy by lunch time and it would have been easier to just sit at my desk and eat, I decided it would do me some good to get out of the office and go see the lilacs I didn't get to see in bloom when I went to Highland Park a couple weeks earlier.  I knew I couldn't pull it off on a different day, so off I went!

The variety of blooms was amazing.  Pinks, purples, magentas, whites...pale or bright...tiny flowers, large flowers...solid leaves, spotted leaves.  I only wished I still had my sense of smell because I'm sure they smelled fantastic!  My goal was to find one particular one that I'd seen friends post pictures of, but my first walk through only yielded beauties like this...

I took a detour deeper into the park, up to the spot where I knew the rhododendrons and azaleas were.  They weren't open two weeks ago, but this time, there was a lot to see!

Huge!

Once again, every view was prettier than the last...

I wrapped back around to the lilacs and continued my quest.

Just as I was about to think about tracking down my car so I still had time to eat back at work, I found it!

How cool is this?

I spotted a few more beauties on the way back to my car...

Lilacs everywhere you look!

Can you see the bee?

...and then it was back to the office!  But it was such a lovely way to spend part of my lunch and made getting through the week just a little bit easier!  After all, we had a very busy few days coming up--Memorial Day weekend was upon us, and we had a lot to do!