The Evidence of Spring

The weather in northern Virginia this spring has been all over the map. We had a snowstorm at the end of March, and just over a week later it was 96 degrees when I was riding my bike to school. The strange weather has made it challenging to determine how to dress in the morning, and has confused the flora as much as it has us humans.

It seems as though it is finally safe to declare that spring has showed up and we are not going to skip straight from a late winter to an early summer after all! Even our little Redbud tree finally started leafing out a couple of days ago, and our little oak tree is close behind.

The most dramatic effect of the unusual weather  was definitely the delay of the cherry blossoms. They released two different peak dates (after the first one passed they gave a second), and the second one came and went with hardly a blossom to show for it. Alison and I had decided to go out to the tidal basin to take a series of pictures before the blossoms came out, and then go back and take the same pictures again once they had peaked, and once more when they were on their way out. The irregular weather made it challenging because when they finally decided to show up, they came quickly and were only out for a couple of days.

Thankfully I was able to convince my supervisor that I needed to go and photograph the blossoms in the middle of the week when they were out. Otherwise we would have missed the peak entirely.

This Album Contains Some of the Best Pictures that came out of our cherry blossom forays.

Since I was going down to take pictures in the middle of the week, I decided to go early enough to capture the sunrise and even convinced Alison to get up early on her day off to accompany me. This
Album Highlights the Sunrise that Morning.

Speaking of sunrises, in the midst of the cherry blossom saga we attended the sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Despite significant cloud cover we were able to enjoy a beautiful Sunrise Through the Narrow Band of Clear Sky right at the horizon line.

If those pictures don't satisfy your appetite for Easter Sunrise shots, you can also check out an

Easter Sunrise Comparison of the pictures I took in 2010 and 2012 with the ones from this year.


While on the subject of comparisons, you can also take a look at the final product of the Cherry Blossom Comparisons that resulted from six trips down to the tidal basin. There are a total of fifteen different locations, each with photographs taken on four consecutive Sundays (March 24, March 31, April 7, and April 14) and during the peak on April 11.

And, if after all of these cherry blossom and sunrise pictures, you still want more evidence of spring, this Album on the Manassas Facebook Page consists of a series of pictures I took of the bluebells blooming along Bull Run.