Spring

We're still a day away from the official first day of Spring, but here in the Pacific Northwest, I think spring starts at the beginning of January. I walked around our neighborhood the other day and took pictures of some of the flowers that are blooming, and of some of the fantastic views we have.

I have tons more pictures than I'll be able to fit in this post, so I'll just have to save some for the future.

The flowers at the top are Japanese Cherry Blossoms, or Sakura. They're all over the place here, and they come in pink and white. Their petals litter the sidewalk in some places, and I had to resist breaking off branches to bring home each time I saw one of these trees.

The scene to the left (click to enlarge) is from a nearby street. It's looking west, across the river, at the downtown area. I think the residential stuff on the hills (left and middle) are in Beaverton, but they may not be that far away. I haven't been over there yet. We have views of the city from all over the place. It's pretty hilly around here, so you'll just be driving or walking or riding your bike, and you'll just look over to the west and there will be this amazing view, poking out between houses and trees.

To the east is Mt. Hood, but we can't see it from our neighborhood. It stuck up unexpectedly when we were walking east of 82nd Ave on our last visit here, but that's too far for me to walk just for one picture. It's sort of weird to be driving past Wal-Mart and see a giant snow-covered mountain sticking up behind it.

I finally discovered what all the "rose trees" around here are! They're camellias. They totally look like roses, blooming on trees all over the friggin' place. Every single yard has one. Some places seem to have them trimmed like hedges, but none of those are blooming, so it might be something different.

Camellias bloom in the winter, and every tree seems to be in a slightly different stage of "blooming". Some only have a single flower popping out, and others have almost completely finished -- sidewalk or lawn coated in yellowing petals.

This next picture is take on one of many moss-covered walls that I passed. If you take a closer look, you'll notice that most of those little green plants are actually succulents! I don't quite know why succulents thrive out here, but they do. I couldn't even count the number of varieties on this one wall. Further down, there was a plaque on this wall that said it was made out of recycled materials.

I love the crazy hippies out here. :)