Look What We Have!

Even though the rain won't really stop in this area for a few more months, I'm definitely excited that spring is just around the corner!  Since we don't typically get super cold temperatures in this part of the country (although we did get snow 3 or 4 times this winter!), one big benefit to living here is that our flowers start to bloom a bit earlier than other places!  As I've been taking Satchel on his daily walks, I've really enjoyed noticing the little differences in the plants, bushes, and trees around the neighborhood.  As Satchel stopped to sniff at one of his favorite bushes this afternoon, I noticed that it has tiny little leaves on it that weren't there yesterday!  Our neighbor's plum trees are also starting to blossom, and even our own maple tree is starting to get little buds (or maybe they're huge buds...who knows...they're nowhere near the ground, so it's hard to say).

I took a couple pictures of the flowers that are starting to bloom in our own yard.  This is a flowering bush we have in our front yard.  It's a type of Japanese Pieris.

Since I took that picture on Saturday, the rest of the flowers have popped and it looks really pretty!

We also have a group of flowers growing near our garage.  Honestly, I'm not sure if they're tulips or crocuses.  The leaves look like tulips, and the petals are a bit too long for crocuses, but they're low to the ground like crocuses, and the shape of the petals are more like crocuses.  I was telling my dad about them, and we wonder if they're a hybrid....each flower is a tucus (pronounced "tookus").  It made us laugh.  We're odd.  Anyways...I took this first photo on Saturday:

And then I took this photo early this evening:

I should've taken the pic earlier today; around lunch time, I noticed that the petals were more open.  Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.  If you notice the leaves poking up behind these flowers, those are our irises popping up!

I'll definitely have to keep an eye on the flowers and try taking more pictures soon.  We have day lilies popping up in the front flower bed, and Shawn and I noticed that our columbines are coming back!  Those sprouts are super tiny right now, but they're there!  It's nice to have a little Colorado in Washington.  :)