A few more beauties… a couple parting shots before we continued the ride north past the gardens. Beautiful ranunculus flowers in a range of colors!

While at the Chicago Botanic Garden, I was also impressed by the flowering espalier growing on the brick entrance walls. Years of pruning & “training” to make this beauty happen!

Today was picture perfect! Beautiful blue skies & surprisingly warm weather again. We hit the bike trail early this morning and rode up to the Chicago Botanic Garden… where the tulips & lupine were in full bloom!!! A wonderful blaze of color… and I’ve always loved the structural shapes of a good lupine!!!

A beautiful day outside today… sure, you might get blown away with the strong gusty winds, but it sure was fun to spend the afternoon strolling along the lake. Kinda surprised these magnolia blossoms haven’t been blown off the tree today!!!

Some amazing tulips blooming in my friend Nancy’s garden! They’re like double tulips… almost looking like small peony flowers on a tulip stem?! You gotta love Spring… Spring flowers… and Mother Nature!

More beautiful Spring flowers… enjoying the fragrance & bright whiteness of these crabapple tree blossoms! Beautiful when fully in bloom… but also fun when the petals start to fall and it looks like it’s snowing!

But on the other hand… THIS is never a good sign!
Pedaling along, minding my own business… and then you come upon this! Apparently it got a bit windy last night?!… which didn’t bode well for this tree that had apparently become hollowed out over the years.

After last night’s Pink Super Moon… it was nice to see it still hanging around this morning! Sunrise on one side, moon on the other. Either way you looked… it was pretty darn cool.

One of my favorite Springtime trees… a beautiful Redbud tree blooming in the forest preserve. Graceful branches covered with bright pink flowers! A beautiful contrast to the brown forest as the spring leaves are just starting to pop out there!

Fragrant white blossoms on a local red plum tree are always a welcome sight in the neighborhood. Beautiful flowers with colorful accents & leaves… with a sweet intoxicating aroma that wafts through when you walk by!