Quincy IL – Dogwood City

Dogwoods Accent the Skies

Travel down the streets in Quincy. Illinois on a spring day and you’ll see why it’s been recognized as a Tree City USA.

Pink Dogwoods

During the annual Dogwood Festival, the Dogwood trees seem to compete in their own beauty pageant. Every yard seems to sport its own tree, a mixture of creamy white blossomed trees and the more familiar pink Dogwood flowers.

The annual Dogwood Festival will be held next weekend, May 2 through 4, 2008, though I should be returned to my home in Madison by that time. I’m anxious to see what the last blast of winter did to my just-peeking-out bulbs and perennials, not to mention my own flowering trees.

Bleeding Hearts and Memories

Bleeding Hearts

Bleeding Hearts

This is the very bleeding heart plant I loved as a child. Returning to my hometown to tie up loose ends this week, I made a stop at my childhood home.

Each Spring my grandmother and I would eagerly watch this plant from the back porch, awaiting the blooming of the little hearts. Today I made an unplanned visit to the old house and found the bleeding hearts blooming bravely, standing amidst all the old memories.

Reflections

Reflections

Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Architectural details on the Memorial Union Building at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin

Spring for Sale

Spring for Sale

Flowers for sale, a sure sign of Spring, at the Dane County Farmers’ Market in Madison, Wisconsin.

Glory-of-the-Snow

Glory-of-the-Snow

The first bit of color popped up in my perennial garden this weekend, though it isn’t truly a perennial. It is the little one-inch Glory-in-the-Snow, a very early Spring bulb, and a member of the Lily family.

Glory-of-the-Snow Patch

The little mounds of flowers looks a mite lonely surrounded by all of the other dormant plants in the large bed.