Early spring flowers

I happily walked home from work today after Kyle and Karen took off with my bicycle.  Walking home meant that I could finally take pictures of all the lovely spring flowers that have appeared over the last week or two here.  My walk was an adventure because it was very windy, approaching dusk, and threatening to start raining at any moment.  But I and my little point-and-shoot camera made it home safely.  Be pre-warned, my photos are not Kyle-quality.

This photo above is right outside my office-- you can tell that it is spring because of the hundreds of bicycles parked outside.

This is the first flower that came up in Sapporo-- I first saw them poking through the ground in the last few days of March. It was the only growing thing I saw before I left for my trip to the U.S. Does anyone know what kind of plant it is?

NOTE: I learned the name of this one while at the Botanical Gardens... it's a type of Burdock

I know this one!  It's skunk cabbage!  It is growing at the edge of the pond near my office.

The stream is running very high from the snow melt.

There are a few piles of snow remaining, but I doubt they'll be around for much longer.  I remember this pile of snow from the winter-- it was from when a snowplow plowed the road after a heavy snowfall, and dumped the pile right across my shortcut.  I was not happy.

The snow has been accumulating a lot of debris all winter.

I especially like this snow pile.  It's as tall as the woman next to it, and the right hand side is completely covered in pine needles.

Back to flowers-- In the historical village part of campus, white and yellow flowers cover the ground.  I thought the white ones were snow drops (because they were droopy in the evening) until I looked closely and saw they have the wrong kind of leaves.  Now I don't know what they are.

NOTE: I learned the name of this one while at the Botanical Gardens... it's Primula takedana, I don't know that the common name is, but it's related to primrose.

I had never seen the little yellow ones either.

NOTE: I learned the name of this one while at the Botanical Gardens... it's a Yellow Star of Bethlehem

A yellow carpet.

An interesting purple one.

New life growing out from under the snow pile.  Not sure what they're going to be.  But I can always wait and see.

Violets next to the mysterious yellow flower.

Another carpet of yellow flowers.

Daffodils in the woods.

The crocuses were beautiful only 3 days ago.  Now they are sad and flat.

This crow gave me the evil eye.

There is so little space that people put little gardens everywhere they can.

The warmer side of the street had more flowers blooming.

This small garden was very impressive.

Different kinds of hyacinths, with tulips getting ready to bloom.

Possibly the tallest azalea I've ever seen.  Trying to look like sakura (cherry blossoms)... but you don't fool me!

Another shorter azalea, with more leaves.

A run down house, but with a fancy garden.

Daffodils are my favorite flower.

One person's tulips are already blooming.  Surprisingly, this was on the cold side of the street.

More crocuses.

Daffodil window boxes line the sidewalk of this house.  If you don't have space for a dirt garden, you can make do with alternatives.

More daffodils.  Love them.

Ditto.

Bikes fallen over into crocuses.

Proof that it was windy today.  This tree is the apartment complex just east of ours.

You can see why it was easy to blow over.

And finally... the "garden" in front of our apartment.  Needs work.

That's all for now.  More photos from Kyle coming soon.

-Bre