February Photo Project, Part 1--Progress

This year, we were gifted the most beautiful spring I can remember. Today is March 2nd, and it's the first time ever I can say that Arizona spring is coming "in like a lion." Growing up in Idaho, that meant bitter cold and drifting snow. Today in AZ the wind is ripping the petals from the orchid trees and the rain is rippling the surface of the pool. Wind never blows here. I'm sitting in my office listening to it howl, and I'm taken back to my childhood bedroom--lying in bed and hearing the pine trees whistle and the windows rattle as the wind tore across the valley, always from the west.

I love spring in AZ. (I don't love sneezing all month.)

I decided at the beginning of the month that I would take at least one photo every day to record the birth of spring. I think I missed three days all month, and when I would go to bed, I would be sad that I had missed my opportunity.

I've read about photographers doing daily themed photo shoots and how they learned so much . . . blah, blah, blah. Guess what? They were right. Not every photo was spectacular, but I learned a lot in one month.

My favorite part of this project was documenting how spring marches forward so quickly.

It seemed that each day these canna leaves unfurled a little bit more. See the boys playing football? Kids catch spring fever around here. They are outside every second--shoeless and in shorts--enjoying the weather without needing to splash in the pool.

The rose bushes in our back yard transformed from thorny skeletons to the first green buds of flowers. That all happened in a month? So amazing. 

 My neighbor's flowering pear tree is one of my personal spring traditions. I look at it every morning when I wake up, and when it is covered in white, the light in my bedroom changes. It went from popping with flowers to covered in leaves.

Nothing is more spectacular in the spring than the two orchid trees in our front yard. They are so messy--magenta petals blanket the grass and fill the gutters daily--but they are worth every bit of mess.

A concrete pot just blew over on my patio. Now the rain is running from the gutters.

Welcome, Spring.