More April Fools

We happened on a magnolia tree today that was flowering -- some blossoms fully open, most in process, and some still tightly encased in their large furry buds. Above is my sketch study of some of them. It was very windy, which meant both that the flowers would not hold still for sketching and that their floral scent surrounded me. (Actually, a mother with small children came up to me and said that she liked to sketch but she couldn't get her kids to sit still so she didn't do it any more -- I responded that I couldn't get the plant to be still, either!)

Here are some other tree flowers I saw today:

(In order, a red maple, a variety of cherry not native to this continent, a pussy willow -- look at those colors -- and a cottonwood.)

These tulips must be an early-blooming variety, because most are not close to flowering, even in the city.

These little dwarf irises are a beautiful spring treat... as are the Dutchman's breeches, but I am a little sad because mine aren't even emerging yet, which means they're probably not coming back. I mean, this was a little south of my house, but not that far. Sadness. (But I still have some hope, I'll keep you posted.)

And my last bit of plant news -- after I posted this morning, I went into the front yard and saw the above daffodil. I have no idea why the shaded front yard daffodils flowered before the back yard ones, but today is the first day I've seen the full-sized ones blooming around here.

In animal news, I also sketched this pair of geese that was both nestling their heads in their backs and resting, if not sleeping. I also saw a mink. It ran right past me while I was sketching, and at first I didn't know what the brown thing was, but I ended up getting a good and pretty long view of it. I was drawing, so there was no hope of getting a photo, but it was still pretty cool.

And a last bit of news, I heard on NPR today -- and I assume it was serious, although they were doing all sorts of April Fool's broadcasts, but this one wouldn't be very funny -- that we had record-breaking high temperatures. It hit 83 degrees F. And it was warmer than many southern cities like L.A. (that's the only one I remember). Funny, if people went on trips for spring break and it ended up being warmer here than there! Ha! That's like nature's April Fool.