Hi, everyone!
It’s raining today, but we’ve had some sunny spring days and even one day that felt like summer!
On the weekend before the solar eclipse, Grandma’s niece Bev and her husband David flew from Denver to New York City. They picked up Grandma’s brother Bill in New Paltz and drove here to watch the eclipse with us! While they were on their way, I helped Grandma make a broccoli and carrot lasagna for dinner. It was fun making all the layers!
Uncle Steven’s family came over to have dinner with us and our guests. That was the first time Kara, James and Thomas met their cousins Bev and David! After dinner, Grandma and Great Uncle Bill played piano duets.
On the morning of the eclipse, it was partly cloudy! Grandma and I took our guests for a walk on the canal path in Fairport village. When it was time for the moon to start crossing the sun, we couldn’t see the sun at all! It stayed cloudy the whole time the eclipse was happening. We did have the three minutes and thirty seconds of darkness when the moon was totally covering the sun. Grandma popped popcorn and we all went out on the back deck for that.
On Wednesday after the eclipse, Grandma and I went to the Rochester Museum and Science Center to recycle our eclipse glasses! They will be sent to Astronomers Without Borders so people in other countries can safely watch when an eclipse happens over them. The museum has a temporary exhibit called Survival of the Slowest, so I visited that while I was there. I made some new friends, but I’m not sure all of them are slow!
At home, I’m seeing more signs of spring! The leaves are starting to open on the apple tree and lilac. More of my daffodil friends are blooming! Something ate some of the flower buds on the rhododendron, but there are still a lot left!
When we were at the bay last Sunday, I made lots of spring flower friends! Most of them were yellow!
We went to the Point for the first time this year to watch the sun set. When we got back to town, the red botanical tulips were blooming! Grandma has been putting coffee grounds around them ever since they sprouted to keep them from being rabbit food. The apple tree leaves are opening out more, too!
Yesterday, Grandma took me to Highland Park. She thought it might be time for the cherry trees to be in bloom, and she was right! I made lots of cherry blossom friends in the glen on the east side of the park! When we walked across to the magnolias on the west side of the park, they were just starting to bloom.
Guess what? The cherry trees along Reservoir Avenue were also starting to bloom! I made more cherry blossom friends there! Then I visited my tulip friends. The pale yellow ones were the only ones open.
I stopped in the Poets Garden to see my helleborus friends. The early azaleas were blooming there. I also got a chance to hug my favorite tree.
The lilacs aren’t blooming yet, but Grandma and I walked through them looking for groundhogs and their burrows. We saw one groundhog peeking out! The volunteer gardeners were planting the pansy bed when we walked past. We saw them doing spring cleanup in the cherry glen and along the paths, too! I made sure to thank them for their work to keep Highland Park beautiful!
It’s supposed to rain from now through the weekend. The next sunny day will be Monday. Grandma says we’ll go back to Highland Park then so I can see my magnolia friends in bloom. Then after that, my lilac friends will bloom, then my peony friends, my buckeye friends, and my azalea and rhododendron friends. I can’t wait to see them all!
Love,
Lion-san
In picture captioned
“Some of the early magnolias were blooming, too!” those are Star Magnolias. They look quite different from the more traditional magnolias. We’ve seen lots of both blooming around here. So far this has been and is a beautiful spring with loads of forsythia everywhere and lots of flowering trees. We have had a good amount of rain and it is raining now. Have had some real pretty warmish spring days too.
Thanks for sharing all the Spring flowers. It certainly confirms that ‘Spring is in the air!” I’m glad the ground hog stuck his head out for you to see!