GREEN!

Can you smell it yet? Green that is -- green grass, new sprouting bulbs, beginning color on the forest floor ... I know my friends in UT are not seeing any of this at the moment (I'm so sorry!) but, I am loving it here! I just can't wait for the trees to burst into color too. On the way to church the other day I pointed out several trees/bushes that had white star flowers all over it to J.D., wondering what they were. They were gorgeous - against the gray and brown of winter trees and the new greening grass. Suddenly there are also similar trees in bloom, only in pink too and I think I've figured it out --- they are dogwoods! SO, I'm going to have to have some of those in my yard. I've never lived in a place with so many - at least a few in every yard is seems, and they are beautiful. I've noticed several fields freshly plowed, ready for seed and even a few that are already growing, what I don't know, but it is just a carpet of green. Didn't know there could be so much green in one place! Now this may be because I've been in the land of the gray here for months on end, winter in Utah was gray, but not constant - after a big snow there was usually lots of days of blue skies in between, an occasional inversion, but usually blue skies and cold. Here it is just gray all winter long -- gray skies, gray flower beds, gray woods, gray corn stubble in the fields. So, seeing so much green covering all of these things is truly amazing. Of course there's LOTS of rain to go with it, but I think this is something I could get used to! Just need to get the grass growing in the backyard, and visit a few nurseries, can't wait to see if I can grow hydrangeas and azaleas?!?!