Spring At Last!

This has felt like the longest winter!  I'm used to the trees budding relatively sooner, but they've only just recently started.  Crocuses are in full bloom on campus (unfortunately I don't have my camera on me at school, so no photos) and daffodils are finally getting ready to bloom.  Or, they're actually blooming, which might just be the most beautiful thing I can think of at this moment:

Equally exciting is how golden the branches of my willow are getting, and its catkins are starting to bud.  The lilacs and red maples are budding as well.  I'm so excited! I've been ready for it to be Spring since New Year's!

Golden Weeping Willow catkins

 Budding lilacs

Red Maple buds

Blue Spruce

This Colorado Blue Spruce has been standing in our side lawn since before we got the house back circa 1992, which makes it the oldest coniferous tree on our property and the only coniferous tree we didn't plant ourselves.  This tree is easily identifiable by its silvery blue-green color from which it gains its name.  Its needles, which are an inch to an inch and a half long, are stiff and prickly (which has always left red marks on my hands and arms whenever I've handled a spruce).  A nice thing about the Blue Spruce is that it is very hardy; it'll grow in just about any soil, including clay.  It does need full sun to grow, but grows well while young at a slow to medium growth rate.  They typically mature at fifty to seventy-five feet in height and have a ten to twenty foot wide spread. 

A fun thing about my specific Blue Spruce is that there's a less branchy area near its base where I can crawl under it and chill for a while.  I could lie down with my head by its trunk and take this picture: