Spring ? Flowers

Hi, everyone!

I’m back at the bay!  Last time I was here, I wrote that the ice  was still on some of the water.  The next morning, we had a very pretty sunrise and the ice was completely gone!  The lake level is rising, so I’m glad the shorefront work was finished last fall!

Since then, we’ve had a few spring weather days.  I got out to see which of my flower friends were blooming in our yard.  My new crocus friend wasn’t fully open because it was still a bit cold.  I was happy to see the daffodils coming up in the backyard planting!  My snowdrop friends were still blooming, too!

Then we had more snow and cold weather!  Yesterday, it got up to 70 degrees, but today it’s cold and rainy again.  My Christmas cactus friend is blooming, but I have to wait to see any more of my springtime flower friends outside.  Even the ones that have begun blooming close up when the days and nights are cold!

Grandma knew I was missing my flower friends, so she took me to Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park today.  It’s too early for the Easter display of spring bulbs and lilies there, but I made lots of other friends!

I made some orchid and hibiscus friends that reminded me of the flowers in Hawaii!

In the room with the turtle pond, I saw a white strelitzia plant.  The blossoms were all the way up at the glass roof!  I’ve never seen a strelitzia that big in Hawaii!  I made croton friends in every room of the conservatory.  I like the colors of the leaves!

There were bougainvillea vines all along the roof, but most of them were dry and brown.  Only the very edges were colorful.  I was happy to see a young bougainvillea plant nearby!  I made some bromeliad friends that reminded me of Hawaii, too!

I made turtle friends in the first room and watched the turtles in the pool in the second room.  I made friends with a turtle out for a stroll there!  There were even more turtles and tortoises in the fourth room.  There’s a turtle village there with a separate area for misbehaving bachelor turtles!

I was happy to see all the plants in the cactus room looking healthy!

In the last room, I made friends with a quail eating lettuce for lunch.  There were some pretty flowers there, too!  At the exit, I finally got to see some daffodils in bloom!  I wonder if the witch hazel has started to bloom outside in Highland Park, too?

There was a snow flurry when Grandma and I left the conservatory and another one when we got home! The snow was melting almost as soon as it fell, but it still felt more like winter than spring!  Some years I can sit outside with my first crocus friend the first week in March, but not this year!

Love,

Lion-san