the red flush of spring

The forest covering South Hill, the ridge we can see from our back porch, is covered in a subtle reddish blush. It's the red maples blooming. Acer rubrum thrives in the wet, thin soils that many trees don't like. There is a lot of ground water at or near the surface on that hill. Lower down the hill, the red is punctuated by the intense chartreuse of weeping willows, another lover of wet, poorly drained soils, whose leaves are just emerging.

Still recovering from watching Duke grind out a victory over Butler in the NCAA Division I national basketball championship game. Not fun to watch mostly--like sausage being made.