here's what's blooming in my neighborhood

I just took some snaps of various ornamental trees around my neighborhood.  I think they are all cherry trees, both white and pink.  Pear trees bloom white too, but they have a different shape and the blossoms look as if someone had tied cotton balls onto the branches.  Anyway, whatever they are, I love seeing them every spring.  I still haven't decided on what to plant to replace the flowering plum tree that fell over last year.  The choices are between dogwood (white or pink), flowering cherry (perhaps weeping cherry), and Japanese red maple.  I have to decide if I want spring flowers or year around color.  Decisions, decisions!

 This is, I think, a white cherry.  There is a group of 5 of them on the corner, just a few houses down from mine.  They aren't very exciting the rest of the year, but in the spring they are wonderful!

 This is the weeping cherry.  Isn't it gorgeous?  I really love these trees when they get to be this size.  However, when they are small, they look rather insignificant and they are rather slow growers, I think.  I don't know if I have the patience to wait ten years to get a tree this size.

This is a pink flowering cherry, not the weeping kind.  It is a bit past its peak, so the color isn't as bright as it was last week.  It would look a lot like the flowering plum that I lost.  However, the cherry, like the plum, does not seem to have a good root system.  One of the homes down the street lost theirs in a storm a few years ago.  I'm very hesitant about buying another tree that will give in to wind and rain.

I don't have any photos of dogwoods in bloom because they aren't blooming this early.  I think it will be nearly a month before they bloom.  We have both pink and white ones in our block.  Both are very lovely.

Japanese maples don't have a showy bloom.  Their leaves are their glory.  I've seen some that have leaves that are green, white and red variegated.  I'll have to do some serious looking soon in order to decide on what I want.  I need to get the tree into the ground before the hot summer weather.

Tuesday, I walked around Lake Elkhorn again.  It was a bit windy, but the sun was shining and it was a pleasant walk.  I counted turtles again and saw a total of 17.  Nine of them were on one log!  Not much else of interest in the lake.  The white heron has not appeared so far this spring.  Perhaps it's too early for him.   In fact there were very few birds on the water.  One pair of ducks and a pair of swans.  The others were not hanging around the paths looking for handouts either.  They must have found better pickings somewhere else.  There are signs prohibiting feeding of the water fowl, but I suspect some people do it anyway.  It's a lot of fun to throw bread to the birds, but not good for them to have too much.  And if they don't eat it all, it messes up the water.  Of course, the Canada geese mess up the paths, with green goo.  (it's really sh-t, but we mustn't  say the naughty word)

I'm trying to walk every day, but so far am only succeeding on Mondays and Tuesdays that are sunny.  I won't walk in the rain. (I guess I'm more a cat than a duck!)  As the week progresses, I seem to lose my ambition for taking a walk.  Also, on Thursdays and Fridays,  I would have to drive somewhere to find an interesting walk.  Somehow, that seems to defeat the purpose of walking.  Anyway, I will keep on trying.  Even twice a week is better than not at all.