Jack and Chin the DogHello from Kentucky. Last month I packed up the dog and we drove to Northern Kentucky to stay with my brother's family. Last November my 26 year old nephew suffered a terrible injury that damaged his spinal cord causing loss of use of the lower part of his body. He requires a lot of attention until he learns to adapt to his situation with the help of physical and occupational therapists. He's doing well but of course we all worry about him none the less so I came up to be one of his caregivers until June.

It is nice to be useful and it is nice to experience a "northern" springtime again after spending the last thirty years in Florida (I am kind of homesick...) We arrived on March 7th, within a few days the ornamental pear trees began blooming along with so flowering quince shrubs and redbud trees. At the same time the daytime temperatures reached 80F and then EVERYTHING began to bloom at once! I had just experienced an "accelerated" spring in Tallahassee and now again in Kentucky!

I'm in Northern Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. I grew up in this area but haven't lived here in more than 30 years. It's fun to visit my old haunts and see how the trees have progressed over the decades. Many of my favorites are still around and many of them are flowering species that I was hoping to photograph.

Cincinnati

It's disappointing that the record heat zapped the blossoms of many of the crabapple and flowering plum and cherry species prematurely. Many of the tulips that I saw were sun-burned and bleached. I did manage to photograph some beautiful white and pink dogwood trees, redbud and Japanese magnolia. Mostly though I'm focusing on taking pictures of the flowers of many of our most familiar tree species like the red maple and Norway maple. I'll have new photos and post Profile updates for more tree species later in the week.

The heat wave is over in the Cincinnati area and now we're in for a few nights of possible hard freezes. I hope it doesn't happen but I'm going to cover up my sister-in-law's clematis vine and dark blue Stokes aster . Stay warm and frostproof!

This entry was posted on April 9, 2012 at 11:10 PM and has received 1090 views. There are currently 2 comments. Print this entry.