I grew up in Philadelphia, moved to southern California a half-lifetime ago, and since have lived in Japan, Colombia, and Spain. One of the great things about San Diego is that the weather's amazing. Compared to most of the rest of the world, it's summer all year long. The downside is that the change of seasons, yes there's a change of seasons there, is subtle. Barcelona, with its Mediterranean climate and almost-exclusively urban terrain, has few dramatic signs of spring. Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience spring in Japan or Colombia but I know that Japan is legendary for its cherry blossoms, which I'd love to see one day. It wasn't until the recent move to Stuttgart that I've had a real opportunity to experience a "real" springtime since I lived in Philadelphia.
In true springtime fashion, during the first three weeks here, it has snowed twice (with no accumulation) and rained a couple of times. The rest of the days have been roughly split between cloudy and sunny with temps that have ranged from right around freezing to nice, warm, "spring-like" days. Over the past week or so I've really started to notice spring literally popping up all around like this magnolia tree in the Schlossplatz in central Stuttgart:
...and these wildflowers in a central Vaihingen park:
...and these on some small trees near the Österfeld S-Bahn stop:
I love how random flowers pop up in the middle of peoples' lawns. These flowers are everywhere and I'm starting to wonder if they're some sort of weed or something...
And a more traditional spring mix:
This bright-red bush with the small yellow flowers reminds me a bit of the red trunks of the manzanita trees that grow in the hills of eastern San Diego county:
Ahhhhh, springtime! It's lovely. I hope you enjoyed a slice of spring from Germany! Oh...and probably only my dad will get the title of this post...
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