Plus, a columbine flower.

But aside from that, it was a beautiful day, and there were lots of spring flowers.

This may have been a mistake, but at least I enjoyed the walk.

Rhododendron

Forsythia Vahl

Forsythia was one of Grandmom’s favorite flowers. (I know, it’s a flowering shrub.)

(More pictures if you click on any picture to go to my Flickr set)

But on a more serious note, my first daffodil pictures last year were March 22. Everything is blooming crazy early this year.

There are even buds of the cherry trees!

I fear that at some point I’m going to turn into one of those weirdos who is fascinated by mosses. But really, they’re fascinating!

Last year’s crocus post was March 13th. And I discovered that not only did the rosemary survive the winter–so did the parsley.

And if you live in Morgantown and have a small person in your life who would be interested in having some fuzzy sticks, the pussy willow is almost ready to bloom.

There are more pictures if you click through.

The entire day was amazing, and makes Juneau one of the places I definitely want to return to (the other, of course, being Denali National Park. Just for convenience.)

If you were not aware of the fact, Juneau is the capital of Alaska. It is also completely unreachable by car. You can only access it by boat or by plane. There have been various drive to move the capital, however, when I asked Tania about it, she said that since everything went online, it doesn’t matter where the capital is, as long as someone can email the representatives or watch sessions remotely. And i do believe she is right.

In case it isn’t clear immediately, we had amazingly, stunningly, beautiful weather in Juneau. So first up: Mendenhall Glacier.

No rain, clear skies, and perfect temperatures. (60s F)

I saw tons and tons of fascinating plants while hiking, including lots of moss and lichen.

And lots and lots of gorgeous flowers and trees.

All of which was fabulous, and very impressive, until we stepped into a tiny clearing at the edge of the lake and I had my breath taken away at the sight.

Arctic Poppy Papaver nudicaule

Blue Poppy Meconopsis betonicifolia

Alpine Forget-Me-Not Myosotis alpestris

Still trying to figure out what this one is.

Primrose Primula

Of course there are more pictures! Just click through!

I also got incredibly lucky, because it was pouring down rain right until I left work, at which point it got all sunny.

Brick
Purple flower(s)
Purple clothing
Something else purple
Still water
Chaos

Brick (taken with Canon Powershot SD1300):

Purple Flower(s) (take with Canon Powershot SD1300):

Purple Clothing (taken with my new phone, Samsung Transform, no flash):

Something Else Purple (taken with my new phone, Samsung Transform, no flash):

Still Water (take with Canon Powershot SD1300):

Chaos (take with Canon Powershot SD1300):

ADDENDUMS:

Check out Phiala’s pictures.
Here are Jeri’s submissions.
Slowpoke Nathan has his pictures.

It’s stupid hot outside, and I hate the heat, so I stood on the porch, in the shade, and shot across the driveway and yard. Here are two of the resulting pictures–uncropped, just processed from RAW to jpg with light balance corrections.

Here’s this evenings sunset. Not at all spectacular, but I’m just playing around.

Lemon Lily in the evening light. This one turned out significantly better than the others.

Thyme. For some reason I have a hard time taking pictures of groups of things.

This is another low maintenance rose bush that is absolutely thriving. And it smells good to.

The first year, the centers of these coreopsis were bright red, but the centers are slowly fading over the years. Ah well.

What I love most about these roses is that they thrive on benign neglect. I’ve ignored them, yet they’re covered in blooms.

For the second year in a row, I’ve missed the blooming of most of my bearded irises. The 90 F temperatures didn’t help any.

The evening primrose also thrives with somewhat more aggressive neglect–I thinned out this bed several weeks ago and then proceeded to ignore it. Pretty nice results.

These lemon lilies came from Michael’s grandmother. I can’t stand Asiatic lilies, but I love day lilies.