march 15th - 21st....SPRING!!!

march 15th....21st


Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.
~Rainer Maria Rilke



more beautiful sunny warm days. though i ended up spending two of them indoors due to illness (ugh). but  it seems winter is over....temperatures dropping and soaring with no sensible rhythm.

i am in awe of the budding nature of spring.  everything is so alive and bursting forth with life and color.   more determined than ever, to learn how to use my camera, i've been taking countless pictures of bushes, trees, flowers and bulbs. out of hundreds of shots, only a few actually turn out decently.   i'm yes, patience is another aspect of learning that i am embracing....we have to be willing to make mistakes, to look foolish, to not know how to do something.  in order to  actually learn new skills we must take the risk.  maintaining a beginners, or student mind set is the ticket.  i've decided with this entry, not dividing things by day...this is my week in pictures.

star magnolia

tia & uma at the cafe

took dozens only a few are passable

too dark

tia & uma playing at park

uma & tia

these are last year's dried pods

finally.... hand in mouth

finally a real close up in focus yay!

weeping cherry

little squirt

had a lovely walk with uma and then off to the park with her soccer ball to kick it around. lots of fun with the squirt bottle.  she loves it!

doesn't this look like a dragon?

hyacinth

grape hyacinth

weeping cherry tree

Add caption

delicious

azaleas in march!!!

 

march 8 - 14th....lord caitanya's moon

march 8th....

gaura purnima ~ this hindu holiday commemorates the birth of lord chaitanya maha prabhu and is a very important date on the gaudia vaisnava calendar.  here are a couple of young dancers performing traditional bharat natyam dance.

their lordships sri sri radha manohar

thier lordships balaram, subhadra & jaganath

young congregant

march 9th....

belly dance thursday evening...lots of new faces.

lord chaitanya's moon







march 10th.....

magnolia (?) blooming...not sure what this is, the buds look like magnolia but not the traditional flower that i'm used to seeing.  in any case it was joyous to see such beauty.  


yes spring is coming on fast.   here's some more beautiful sightings.

uma taking monkey and baby for a walk in the stroller to visit the fish in our neighbor's water installation which has been turned off for the winter but today it was running and lovely.  still no sign of the fish, i imagine they'll be out soon enough.

uma..feeling the water

uma asked if she could touch the water and i watched on worried that she might fall in.  she didn't of course. 

uma sitting on porch

here's baby and monkey enjoying their walk. 














march 11th....

hedy's 99th birthday extravaganza....it was fabulous.  hedy had a blast, about 50 folks turned up to celebrate with her.  we (her students) did a flash mob dance for hedy that was very well received and hedy herself got up to dance with us.  my friend rima came and decorated the table...it was gorgeous.  her husband mark (a photographer) came and took pictures.  lida and i did the flower arrangements.  diane made the most beautiful (and delicious) cake.  what can i say....my cup is full.

hedy walked in exactly at three.  only a handful of us who were there to set up, so we had some quiet time together ...guests staggered   in and hedy  was able to greet everyone.  she looked very happy

hedy chatting with josie and carrie

diane's amazing creation

not the whole party cause some left before we shot this

hedy & me

march 12th......

peonies in my neighbor's garden  oh joy!

magnolia buds ready to burst

march 13th....

driving to work this morning at 8am...took this pic of my neighbor's tree. 

march 14th....the fish are out!!

uma, tia and i went for a walk today to visit our neighbors beautiful water installation.  he is so generous and always welcoming to uma and her entourage.  we've been checking for weeks but finally, today, we saw the fish.  they seem a little shy, guess they forgot us over the winter hibernation...but they all survived and are enjoying the beautiful weather.  but i'm getting ahead of myself.  first stopped to take a look at the magnolia trees on the estate.  they are bursting with color.

on my way over to see uma, my eye was caught by a vision of blue...glory-of-the-snow is the common name of these little gems. 

uma's neighbor has some daffodils blooming, and the forsythia is coming along too

uma and i walked up the street to visit chris' beautiful water installation and check on the fish. 

uma heard a woodpecker and pointed to where she thought the noise was coming from. chris was out in the garden and he told us the fish were awake and that all of them had survived their long winter  hibernation.  they were a little shy at first, but then they came up to say hello.

chris introduced us to his beautiful parrot  bob.  i'd never met him before but tia and uma both had.

chris also took us back into his yard to see the new installation he's working on. his landscape designer, roberto, was there and explained the workings of this lovely stream.

when we got home, madhava was waiting for us and listened intently while we told him of our adventures.