Red Beautiful

We bought a family membership for Red Butte Garden today. It was relatively inexpensive. We'd only have to go once as a whole family for it to pay for itself-- three times as a couple. Totally worth it. It's a garden of Eden right now. Gorgeous. It'll be the perfect destination for low-key (now free!) dates throughout the summer and fall.

Did you know there's such a thing as white wisteria?!
Until today, I didn't.

Not that you really need white when you have all that gorgeous purple.

So many places to explore with no dogs (or dog messes), no bicycles, 

and surprisingly few people. 

They have benches throughout and some benches swing.

I think it's my new favorite place.

Snow-topped Mountains,Trees, and Blue Blue Sky

More Wheeler Farm in May

Spring run off.

These are weed flowers as tiny as forget-me-nots only pink. There were tons of these at the farm today.

 Whenever I smell lilacs I think of the four childhood years I spent in Iowa. Not long before we moved to Utah, my parents left us children (they had seven at the time, five of them younger than me) to go on a house-hunting trip. Somehow I was sent to stay at a church member's home all by myself. An older couple lived there, not too far from my school, and worked during the day. After school, I came back to a quiet empty house. I missed my siblings. It was too quiet.
But I had my own room for the first time in my life. 

In the room was a desk just below a window where I could sit and do my homework. Most days, the window was open when I came back from school A perfect breeze blew through that window and gently lifted the white cotton curtains up over the desk and into the room. Right outside the window were lilac bushes. The scent and the situation brought the most serene, beautiful feeling. When I smell lilacs, I think of that room and of Iowa. It brings back a rush of joyful childhood feelings.

March to May

We visited Wheeler Farm in March and then again today. The Scottish Highland cattle both had their babies. And the big pile of debris was turned into wood chips-- many many wood chips.

Tulips!

I took the first two pictures on our walk this morning on the uphill portion of 30th East. The city of Cottonwood Heights plants these little flower boxes that are at the base of the cement retaining wall every year . 

The last tulip picture I took as we walked through a catwalk in a nearby neighborhood. These tulips are actually much smaller than the top ones. 

All over the valley the tulips look marvelous and the varieties are amazing. 

Maybe because of the cooler spring this has been an impressive year for tulips.

Pretty Trees

I don't like to exercise. Maybe it's because I spent months avoiding it and now I'm starting again. New and renewed things can be challenging. Today I was dancing around my living room but I quickly got bored of the music. The day is beautiful although cooler than sometimes, but perfect for walking. It helped that I had a destination-- the post office. So I walked to the post office. I didn't want to walk one of the usual ways back home, so I went exploring. I never noticed before today that fortunately there is a road that goes east if you walk a little north past the post office. I found a new way home. I liked this little corner, especially the trees.