Flowers

Stevie and I got a rare treat yesterday to go on an all-day date, courtesy of Liz, who volunteered to be a "substitute teacher" for Cannon.  I had a great day planned - a day full of flower viewing: sunflowers, cherry blossoms and orchids - until the weather decided to be uncooperative and rain.  Boo weather!

But trooper that I am (Stevie would call me a slave driver) I dragged Stevie to the flowers anyways!  We started off at London's school for his awards ceremony - Teacher's Choice award - and then went on to see the sunflowers.

Now our sunflowers are giant 10 foot tall specimens, but just like the Japanese themselves, Japanese sunflowers are shorter - like 5 feet tall.  And, apparently, theirs bloom in February instead of late summer.  But they were sunny and festive even on a day that wasn't.  About 10 minutes after we got to the fields, the rain started...

Back in the car, we decided to try our luck and head north to try to see the cherry blossoms.  I've been carefully monitoring the progress of the sakura hoping to catch them at peak bloom, but it seems like I'm too early, or this time, a tad too late.  Some of the trees were already beginning to leaf out, but to me that only made them prettier to see a touch of green in with the pink.  They are quite a beautiful site and I can see why the Japanese have such a fascination with them.  Unfortunately, 10 minutes after we got there it started to rain again...

At this point, we decided to postpone any further attempts at flower watching and try again another day.  Stay tuned for part 2 - the orchids!