Spring - finally here!

After some bouts of confusion, I can finally report that spring has arrived in New Jersey. Today, I visited the Rutgers Gardens, a lovely part of the Rutgers campus that I have been wanting to see since I arrived. Unfortunately, since I do not have a car, I could not go there before. No bus goes there, and one truly cannot walk there (ah, New Jersey!). Believe me, I have tried. Unfortunately, the road turns to highway, and one (okay, me!) fears for their life when walking on this highway. And - that is the ONLY way to the garden! Unbelieveable.

But today I had the Zipcar and was able to pay the Gardens a visit. They are beautiful - all the flowers were in bloom, and the scent of lilac was unbelieveable. My favorite trees were the Carolina Silverbell, and the Smoke Tree (Royal Purple). Sorry, I did not have my camera today.

But, I did get a few shots of the beginnings of spring in early April. One morning, I was walking to work and found that the trees on Somerset Street had erupted into blossoms. Or rather, half had, and half were deciding to hibernate a bit longer. Here's the contrast:
Sleeping...

















And awake! (these photos were taken the same day, of trees right next to each other).

















The thing with spring here on the east coast is - after looking at bare branched trees for month, the blooms really are nothing short of a miracle - and such a welcome song of color.
Finally, here's another beautiful tree from my route to work.

My birthday - a week of coolness!

My birthday this year was sandwiched in between some really fun events - seeing Asha Bhosle (famous Bollywood singer, now 73 but with the same sweet voice) and Kronos Quartet together on stage at Carnegie Hall, seeing Sesame Street Live right here in New Brunswick, attending a Friday night poetry slam at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and watching Best of the Best at New York City Center, a dance (bhangra, garba, and fusion styles) competition. Sorry, no pics from the latter three events, but I do have a few pics to share from the Asha show.

Here's Asha when she first arrived on stage.













Here's Asha with Kronos in the second portion of her performance, after a sari change!













It was a wonderful show, and she was quite the perfomer, even heckling the members of Kronos a bit!