Portal to Portland

Meanwhile, over on the western edge of the world...Charyl went walking in Portland with her handsome new four-footed friend and captured these views of spring in full swing. Holy tulips, irises, and whatever in the world those yellow explosions above are!

In a lovely example of subconscious cross-continental communication, she said she had an urge to take photos for me of the blooming flowers and greening trees in her neighborhood but refrained, not wanting to tease me with her spring before mine had come. "But then I just read your blog. No wonder I wanted to send you photos! You were asking for them!"

Of course I am delighted with the Portland portal view. And since this exchange took place on the day when the thermometer soared to 83 degrees here, it wasn't a tease at all. It turns out that both April 1st and 2nd broke local high temperature records for the region.

We certainly haven't reached the stage of tulips and irises yet here, but a little rain on Saturday painted everything a much more vibrant shade of green. Daffodils around the neighborhood are in full flower. Walking in the woods yesterday, I marveled at a hillside that was entirely green with the leaves of wild leeks and mottled-spotted trout lilies. A little further on, I was amazed to find Dutchman's breeches in bloom. (Last year I spotted those puffy pantaloons on Mother's Day, more than a month later.) In a few places, the cheery little faces of spring beauties peeked up, too.

It's cooled off a bit after last week, but there's no doubt we're on an accelerated spring schedule this year. Which means budding, blooming, blossoming Portland doesn't seem nearly as far away as it would have at this time a year ago. Of course, that's partly thanks to the newly installed portal, which appears to be functioning just as intended!