A couple of days ago, I needed to drop off an envelope at a local business.  Instead of getting in my car and driving there, I decided to walk the 0.6 miles there and back.  It was early evening, and the sun was still bright.  I walked out the back of our complex, past three fairly new homes with nice landscaping.  The first thing I saw was this.

I thought these two bushes were very beautiful together, two different color-schemes, and everything looked so well-kept.  I think the green one is a variety of holly, and I noticed that the holly was growing right into the bush below it.  They must like each other!

I reached the end of the block, and turned right, down the arterial street.  Behind our house is a quite large piece of property that runs right to the arterial.  Facing the street, and hiding the house, is what must remain of the original woods on that side of the property, and sometimes it looks messy.  In fact, you really have to study this picture to see the interesting feature that I found to photograph.

What I saw was the very old stump of a large tree, with a new, young tree growing right out of it.  The many branches of what are probably Himalayan Blackberry (an invasive pest around here), both current and old growth, can camouflage the stump.

I walked on, and a little way down the street, I saw some “urban logging”, around an overflow pond that catches storm water runoff.  The City owns this property, and sometimes during the winter, the trees fall over and need cutting and removal.  This bit of logging was pretty fresh.

The top photo shows the urban logging, and the bottom one is “collateral damage”.  They must have run a big piece of heavy machinery up onto the sidewalk, and broken it.

I walked a little farther, to the boundary of a piece of commercial property, which has a coffee shop and a convenience store.  All along the perimeter are hedges of Photinia, which grows both red and green leaves.

That red, new growth, is so pretty!  On this bush, you can spot some of last year’s leaves, as well as this year’s.

Just a bit farther on, there’s a bigger tree, and I noticed all the new buds on its branches.  I expect it will be all “leafed-out” in a couple of weeks, but it’s nice to watch the progress.

On my way back, I again stopped by one of the newer homes near our place.  I was intrigued by the crooked branches of this tree.  I wonder how and why it grows that way.

And finally, right near our place, this bush, with all the bright, new green leaves!  They really contrast with the stems.

Happy Spring!