I got lucky, having been born in April, just when the flowers are blooming, temperatures are slowly warming, and the chorus frogs are in full voice in the pond across the street.  Our backyard is starting to look more like a garden and less like a bare field.  The birds are back at our feeders, and there is activity from dawn to dusk.  It keeps our cat spellbound in front of the sliding glass door.

Of course, the most colorful part of our environment is found up in the Skagit Valley, where the fields of flowers are blooming again.  The Skagit is the second-largest producer of tulip and daffodil bulbs in the world, after The Netherlands.  And it’s only a one-hour drive from home, so we go there often.

Spring colors aren’t just foliage.  With our mostly-cloudy winters, here in the Pacific Northwest, we look forward to the blue skies of Spring.

We also have a refrain around here “The mountains are out”!  Indicating that the skies are clear enough to see the mountain ranges that surround us to the East and West.  Those are the Olympics, across Puget Sound.

And that’s Mount Baker, in the Northwest Cascades.

But the mountain known by all as “The Mountain” is our Mount Rainier.

Closer to home, here’s the azalea near our front door.  My real estate agent gave it to me as a housewarming gift when I bought the house, 20 years ago!

Finally, this isn’t a photograph, and I didn’t record it, but I thought of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata #5, known as the “Spring” Sonata.  Here’s the first movement, performed by two acquaintances of mine, violinist James Ehnes, and pianist Andrew Armstrong.   Happy Spring!

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