The last of March, a holy day for many

 Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.

This does not include the many people on this earth of non-Christian beliefs. For them, there are other springtime celebrations.

And an early Easter on the last day of March must have some meaning. Did you know the Christians still choose the date for Easter each year based on the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Very pagan, I'd say. 

And I'm rolling in joy with all the blossoms blooming around me.! Trees are pollinating (achoo!) and cars are suffering.

I begin with two side-shots...looking away from the banks of Flat Creek. Uphill behind the bamboo, stands a shed, which I believe once belonged to some potters who have since moved. Fun memory.

Walking down into a more flat area, we looked across the creek to see steps leading down to it. There were no buildings on that property, but it made us pause to think that at one time someone wanted to have access to the creek regularly...living perhaps in a house that is now gone. Creek water is nice to drink coming down from the mountains...though now days there might be fertilizer coming into it from a few homes upstream.

As Flat Creek passes by Ole's Guacamole Restaurant, there's a tree with a label.

There are many other treasured trees from a map that I saw at Lake Tomahawk in the bulletin board. I want to find more.

The Bistro restaurant is to the right (on State St,) while the welcome center is just beyond it.

I was stopped at the light in the center of town, and gazing around, noticed this fire hydrant had been decked out with a scarf, probably lost at some time by a visitor, who won't know where it is!

Not sure how this got in here! Makes sense...

The building in the back is Four Sisters Bakery - which has lots of goodies!

This is the Red Rocker Inn, a B&B, which has a dining room behind the many windows to the right.

Another town has a UU church with this outdoor gathering circle of benches.

Have fun, whether dying eggs and hiding them and having little ones find them, or feasting with loved ones! All our rituals do bring us together to enjoy life.

Today is:

Easter Sunday, 

National Prom Day, 

Crayon Day, 

Tater Day

Today's quote:

Novelist and poet Ben Okri, born in Minna, Nigeria (1959), lived mainly in England until he was seven years old, when his family moved back to Nigeria. Okri said: "Literature doesn't have a country. Shakespeare is an African writer. ... The characters of Turgenev are ghetto dwellers. Dickens' characters are Nigerians. ... Literature may come from a specific place, but it always lives in its own unique kingdom."

Last week driving around

 

And then we had two freezing nights and never out of the 40s days...plus a rain 

Sharing with Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Today's quote:

Water is a great teacher that shows us how to move through the world with grace, ease, determination, and humility.

Spring in the 'hood

 Fortunately some of the older plantings of iris remain after the new landscapers scraped and mulched most of our apartment grounds.

I think this was an early blooming form of flame azalea. If you know better, let me know!

This is true flame azalea, which was planted by the new owners when I moved here 3 years ago. The other plants they added were a lot of day lilies, which will be blooming in a month or so.

Early spring blooms

 Not just white daffies, but flowering Quince, which has kind of been swallowed up by something else.  I have such trouble remembering that name from year to year, but I keep seeing it, and finally it comes to me about the 10th time I drive by some.

 Late afternoon sun hit the redbud by the parking lot...to bring out it's beauty against the darker trees behind.

 This is indoors, and has offered me colorful blooms for months...

 But everything that blooms naturally must fade and droop eventually. My purple shamrock has been happy to be inside all winter, and awaits the end of frosts (usually Mother's Day, but who knows with climate change!)

Mr. Canada Goose is oblivious to the blossoms (not sure what they are.)

My attempt to capture a closeup while wind was blowing failed.

 I'd never noticed that a well trimmed hedge near the swimming pool is actually Forsythia.

The last of the cherry blossoms near the walk  around the lake.