Scenes from a run
I finally decided a couple of weeks ago to get off my lazy behind and start running again. It’s been far too long, and I really don’t have an excuse not to. And I can’t wuss out after a week, since Darryl goaded me into doing the Race for the Cure on May 8th. I always forget how good I feel when I finish (ok, most of the time anyway) but I’ve discovered a new bonus to running–enjoying the lovely spring evenings in Downtown Sacramento. Now if only I’d remember to put on mosquito repellent before I go out…
The front of the Capitol at sunset
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Dogwoods at the Capitol
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Random walk around my neighborhood
This was one of the last days I had the wide angle lens before I had to send it back, and I was determined to get a few more pictures.
Hi, my name's Kari, and I'm addicted to dogwood trees. They're just so stinking pretty...
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Standing on the railroad bridge looking down at Business 80, the highway next to my house.
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The traintracks and railroad bridge that go over the freeway.
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Looking west down the tracks toward downtown Sacramento.
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Train crossing. I sat here for almost an hour waiting for a train to go by so I could get some fun wide-angle shots... nope. No train. Darn things go by every 30 minutes at night, but apparently they were on hiatus that day or something.
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Sweet pea flowers
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I love the trees in this town
Sacramento is apparently the world’s second most treed city (Paris is the first.) I live in Midtown (near downtown), and while I don’t think there are more trees than people, it’s pretty close. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed trees as much as I do here in Sac. Last summer, they shaded my (unairconditioned) house and made it pleasant even on 100F days. In the fall, they turned lovely colors. In the winter they stood dormant and skeletal, and now that it’s spring, they’re budding and flowering and leafing and quite beautiful (as long as I don’t think about what it’s doing to my allergies. I’m firmly blaming the weed pollen for my miserable allergies this year–I refuse to believe that trees as beautiful as these could be making me so miserable.)
Anyway, my street is home to some of my favorite trees – saucer magnolias, Japanese maples, and the ones in the following pictures: flowering dogwoods (both pink and white ones!) I’ve been keeping an eye on this tree, hoping to get some good morning or afternoon light, and this morning I finally scored on that count.
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Anyone know what these flowers are?
They are covering several lawns and grassy areas around my neighborhood, and I can’t figure out what they are, but I absolutely love them. So pretty!! As always, click on the picture to enlarge it. :-)
Unidentified flowers--help me out here!
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Lovely spring blossoms
By the calendar, spring starts in another week, but if you looked at the thermometer and flowering trees, you’d swear it’s been here for longer than that. Lately it seems like everything around here is in bloom, something which my allergies are none too happy about… But I do have to admit that I’m just as obsessed with flowering trees in the spring as I am fall colors in the autumn, so I take my allergy medicine and enjoy the beauty. (Note to a certain whiner–I didn’t adjust the saturation on this at all. The lens just does really rock that much.)
Ornamental pear blossoms. The tree smells like wet dog (to me, anyway, but I'm just weird) but the darn things sure are beautiful.
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American River redux
This is one of my favorite places to go walking–I can’t help but take a lot of pictures. It’s especially neat since the water is so high right now. The last pictures I posted (last week) were from the south bank of the river, which is an easy walk from my house. The other day, I went the north bank of the river–I have to drive there, but it’s a longer walk and there’s more wide-open space, so it’s worth it.
As always, click on any of the following pics to enlarge them.
I took this last fall when I walked down with Kat and Olav to watch the sun set. Notice the golden tree and the exposed bridge pilings.
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For contrast, here's the one I took the other day. The now bare tree is barely in the water, and so are both of the bridge pilings that were exposed in the other picture.
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Here's a leaf picture from last fall.
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Here's the same spot, several months later.
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Ok, enough with the contrasts. Onto other things.
Since my mom liked the picture of the dried star anise from a couple of weeks ago, here's some dried star thistle. (Although I actually took this before she told me she liked the anise...)
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Signs of spring.
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[Click here for the full gallery of pictures]
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The beauty that is in my front yard
I don’t ever remember noticing saucer magnolias until college, when I fell in love with the massive one in the library courtyard at Cal Poly. This particular tree is out in front of my house, and I didn’t notice it until about a week ago. I so love these things. If you haven’t ever seen one, the blooms come out before the leaves, so you have this beautifully-shaped skeletal tree with these enormous pink flowers on it (there are variations on the shade of pink–I’ve seen everything from a pale shell pink to a deep magenta.) They’re absolutely amazing.
Saucer magnolia - close up and somewhat desaturated.
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Stepping back a bit.
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