Leaves in spring sunshine can be as dazzling as autumn color. Here are some red Japanese maple leaves like flaming fingers against the sky.

Deep red Japanese maple leaves against a blue springtime sky

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In the break we had from rain a couple of days ago, I went out with my dry paintbrush and pollinated my two little fruit trees. (“Make like a bee!”) I am lucky enough to have a dwarf cherry tree with multiple grafts on it of different varieties. However, even though it is “self-fertile,” all that means is that it doesn’t need another variety to pollinate. It still needs some pollen to move around for the fruit to set. So out I go, on a sunny day, with my soft, dry paintbrush, and gently brush the blossoms. I have found it makes a big difference. Use this technique on tomato plants, too.

Fruiting cherry tree blooms in backyard orchard

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Seattle is glorious on a sunny April day:

Seattle seen from the soon-to-be-demolished viaduct

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From my recent visit to the Skagit tulips. The trunks of the trees were at least 6 or 8 feet (2-3 meters) in diameter. They were OLD.

Red and pink tulips under sunshine and clouds in Mt. Vernon, WA

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Friends drove me to Seattle and their car had VERY clean car windows.

Monochrome view of Seattle’s Great Wheel, from the Viaduct

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As a brief break from tulips, I thought I’d show you a new tree (to me), a star magnolia. The pretty white flowers were very fragrant, and 2 or 3 inches wide (5-8 cm). It was growing in a sweet little arboretum in Everett, WA, the Evergreen Arboretum & Gardens.

Fragrant white Star Magnolia blooms in April in Everett, WA

They also had a lovely and fragrant viburnum tree of some kind. Looking on google images for the name of this plant, I find Viburnum carlesii ‘Aurora’, or Korean spice viburnum, which looks very similar, except that the plant I saw seemed to be a tree, or maybe it was just a very mature shrub. But I want one.

Fragrant viburnum blooms in April in Everett, WA

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We had one sunny, warm day. One. But it was perfection, and here in Seattle, everyone surely appreciated it. I went outside and my tulips were in full bloom.

Orange tulips bloom against a blue sky

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Here’s another image from the same Connecticut park as the scene below. Early spring is the sweetest season.

Forsythia and a beckoning bench in the spring sunshine

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Sometimes beauty appears in surprising places.

Sun sets over an empty tennis court in very early spring

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This one’s like a painting, is it not? Taken last year at the overlook quite near my house.

Bands of pink clouds over Puget Sound in Washington, at sunset

Linking up with Blue Monday, Wordless Wednesday, Scenic Weekends, Seasonal Sundays, Our World Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Pink Saturday, Skywatch Friday, Ein Stück Himmel, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Water World Wednesday, NF Catching the Light Monday, My Romantic Home, and Saturday Show Off. Do try a new tag or category, at the right sidebar, while you are here.