Good Thing Spring is So Beautiful...

Yoshino Cherry, the type most common 'round these parts. Beautiful when first in bloom, I actually prefer this late stage of blossom when there's a bit of pale green asserting itself among the rose and brown of the branches.

Anna's Kanzan cherry; it blooms about 3 weeks after the Yoshinos and I'm a big fan of their blossoms. This is just beginning and should be in its full majesty in another 10 days or so.

Star Magnolia, Lindsay's "birthday tree". Sweet citrus smelling flowers with delicate petals; this is one of the first of our trees (actually, shrub) to bloom each year.

In the near foreground, our Variegated Vigella just coming on; in a couple of weeks, these stalks will be covered in lovely pink bloom. They make for an amazing centerpiece and also bloom again at the end of summer. Further back, my lone surviving forsythia; I planted two on either side of our garage when we first moved in but we moved them to the back when they approached the roof line! One died in protest of the move... and just behind it, Haley's saucer magnolia that won't bloom for another six weeks or so. I LOVE magnolias.

This is MY Jane Magnolia. After years of planting trees in honor of one thing or another, I still had no Jane Magnolia which is by far my favorite of the mid-Atlantic flowering trees. I call this my freedom tree because I planted it last spring when I first left my "real" job.

My MIL's prized flowering almond; it is really beautiful.

My neighbor's weeping cherry... the standard landscaping at construction here included one flowering tree per home. My neighbors were really annoyed for very many years that their tree was a wimpy looking weeping cherry. I told them...just wait...and now? Its the most gorgeous tree on the block in bloom.

Our Bradford pear and the next door neighbor's Yoshino cherry. Its hard to believe that this tree wasn't even five feet tall when it was planted; it is now taller than our house.

Across the street and to the right, this lucky neighbor has both mature Yoshino cherry as well as Bradford pear. Its nice to look out the front window for this view...

The bad news
is that my sinuses are GOING NUTS. After seeing my doctor this week this is my current regimen for managing the congestion, sniffling and itching:
Nasonex: spray up your nose twice per day
Allegra D- one tablet every morning
Singulair - one tablet every morning
Pseudoephedrine HCl - one table every four hours
Neti pot rinses as needed.

And guess what? After four days, my head is still about 75% congested, my ears are still full of fluid and I have the mother of all freakin' sinus headaches.

Love these flowering trees, hate these flowering trees.