Cherry blossoms and Tulips

So we did it. We braved the traffic and the crowds and we went down to the Tidal Basin in DC to see the Cheery Blossoms this year. I had not taken Cornelia down there to see the flowers in five years. Five years! But we did it this year.

Surprisingly some of the most beautiful foliage we saw Sunday was nowhere near the Tidal Basin. It was around the Smithsonian and some of the other Federal buildings downtown. And it was well worth the trip.

I am not one of those people who enjoys Winter. Some folks I know can not wait for the first snowflakes so they can hit the ski slopes or go snowboarding. To me skiing is a good way to fall down a lot and get very wet and very cold. That's because I suck. But the apres ski stuff by the fireplace is kind of nice.

Other people love the heat of summer - going to the beach, fishing, surfing, sunbathing. That has it's place, but being too hot is not my idea of fun either. The best thing about a hot summer day to me is the cold beverage one enjoys to relieve the heat.

My personal favorite season is fall, but right now, spring has caught my fancy. And it's not just about cherry blossoms.No it's about beauty so breathtaking that it stuns you. It makes you want to be silent in its presence and even the noise generated by a crowd of people passing you seems to fade to so much background humming.

The flowers - especially the tulips but also the violets, hyacinths, crocuses and others that are blooming here in DC are breathtaking. The deep hues, the delicacy and artistry of the Creator reflected in these little ambassadors is enough to make you want to fall down and pray.

We walked around the Smithsonian castle before going to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry trees and the sun through the tulips and the violets made the colors shimmer. There were arrangements of pansies and violets and dusty miller on the front lawn of the Castle that just shook me with their beauty. I must have looked like a real doofus with my baseball cap turned backward so I could get a good look at the viewfinder on my camera. But I was not a alone. There were plenty of people there snapping away at these amazing creatures.

There were red tulips with deep purple and yellow inside. There were purple tulips, yellow tulips, yellow violets (I did not know there was such a thing but there are) and daphnies and daffodils and hyacinths that made your head swim with their sweetness when you sniffed them.

I was especially enamored of this one variety of tulip that was planted in front of the Department of Agriculture Building on Independence Avenue. They were just there for decoration - not any special decoration, just a decoration for the front of the building. But they were stunning. The kind of beauty that is majestic, that makes you feel small. And their silent witness to the Genius of the One who created them was humbling.