Monday, March 22, 2010

Magnolias!

This is spring in the South.

The campus popped into bloom this weekend while I was away. (Not away away, just home away, getting some quiet, getting some writing done, doing battle with the hydrangea bushes, and communing with the cat and yes, with the scriptures.) The flowering fruit trees, several kinds, and the magnolias are all ablossom.

Now, of course, it is overcast and about to rain. It poured buckets yesterday in the late afternoon and part of the night, but the beginning of the weekend was spectacular: sunny, dry, balmy, no humidity, and no mosquitoes yet. If it weren't still Lent I would say the A-word.

Meanwhile, in the mountains of Western North Carolina, three hours' drive from here, it is snowing.

Enough blabla. Here are some magnolias. These are all from the same tree in front of my office building. I took the first three in sunny weather this morning. I took the fourth in the early afternoon under overcast skies. [Correction: I think that fourth one is from a different tree.]

Click to enlarge, especially the big tree photos!







3 comments:

PseudoPiskie said...

I haven't seen any magnolia buds yet. We're a bit behind you. Thanks for the photos.

The Cunning Runt said...

These are spectacular!

Susan and I saw magnolias blooming at the Smith Bulb Show - they were branches broken off in a recent heavy snow, brought indoors and stuck in buckets of water, and they bloomed just at the end of the show.

Your part of the world looks lovely to those of us stuck in the mud under gray skies!

June Butler said...

Jane, the magnolias are gorgeous. A day or so after I posted my pictures of our magnolia tree, the blossoms began to fall. The campus trees are much fuller with blooms.