Crabapple and rhododendron

Unfortunately for me, the crabapple tree was at peak last weekend while I was in Claremont for my five year reunion. Luckily for you, however, my wonderful husband obliged me by taking pictures. I tried taking a few more yesterday, but they were so obviously inferior to the ones he took (in the beauty of the tree, hopefully they were comparable in quality of photography) that I deleted them from the computer. As you can see in both the pictures of the whole tree and the details, the flowers on this beauty are fuschia: gorgeous, bold and striking. By now, about a third are on the ground and the remaining blossoms have started to fade to a nondescript pink. Nothing lasts, but I do know what I'm looking forward to next year.



The rhododendron had just started to bud before I left for California, but when I came back I was greeted by the welcome sight of its delicate pink blossoms. We bought and planted this rhododendron last July, so I didn't know exactly what color it would be. I find it to be quite lovely (the blossoms remind me somewhat of those of the pink cherry tree we planted). Unfortunately, the leaves are a bit brown at the edges (and have been since the end of winter...or more likely since sometime during the winter). I'm not quite sure how to rectify this particular situation.

My poor little spruce

Last fall, Matt and I created a new flower bed and planted two evergreen trees (a type of cedar and a colorado spruce) near the corner of our lot.  We did this for several reasons: to break up the huge expanse of grass on that side, to give a little winter color, to eventually have more privacy and to create an additional barrier (since apparently, the rocks around the edge of our lot are to stop stupid kids from cutting across the corner in their cars).

Last weekend, much to my chagrin, this is what I found:

That's right.  Someone drove into our yard and OVER our tree.  I will admit to having been extremely angry about this.  Luckily, my wonderful Step-Mother-in-Law and my Father-in-Law came over to help me right the poor thing.  It's currently tied to keep it upright and I hope it'll be ok.  It's hard to tell from the angle from which I took that picture, but it's also missing about a thirty degree angle's worth of branches in the direction from which it was run over.

On a more hopeful note:

Sadly, it snowed last night but it really isn't supposed to last, so hopefully I'll have actual flowers too.