Spring in DC

Now that summer is trying to force its way in, I probably should get the spring photos up.  Before I head off again, I'm trying to catch up on the past trips and fun.

Spring is my favorite season in Washington (while summer is the season I detest here). Unfortunately, we've had some true summer during May, but we also had some lovely spring in March. The non-winter winter certainly had everything confused!

I found a new Calder! Off the west side of the original National Gallery of Art building. I do love Calder.

2012 marked 100 years of cherry trees! Sadly, they were all done blooming by the time of the big festival, since spring came so early to Washington this year. But they were lovely, as always. This one was a really early bloomer, mid-March, I think.

Airlie is this wonderful conference center out in Warrenton, VA. My leadership class had three great days out here, getting all our assessment feedback. That was painful, but with the early spring, at least we had a lovely location to temper the news. Unfortunately, except for class breaks, we had almost no time to explore the campus -- we started too early each day and finished too late each evening. 

This is actually my front yard. Normally, the daffodils are first, with the crocus and hyacinth. Then come the cherries, then the daffodils. They're all here together.....

 Cherries! Somehow I never do get tired of them. But while the tidal basin is stunning, I do appreciate that they are all over the city and I don't have to fight the tourists to see them. This day, I was surprised as one young man convinced the young lady he was with that these weren't cherries and you HAD to go to the tidal basin to see them. Who was I to argue? 

Ha ha. I took a painting class one evening. This was the first time I'd ever had a canvas, brushes, real paint. While I think I was the oldest person there (aside from the mom who came with her daughter -- it really was a 20-something happy hour kind of thing, who knew?), I had fun. I think you can more or less tell that the inspiration was an image of one of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, so I'm satisfied. It honestly looks better through the kind eye of the iPhone camera than it does close up!