open your eyes

Uh, actually, some of the trees around here are blossoming…

I looked out the classroom window today, out over the quad at the centre of the university’s original buildings, and saw, way out in the middle, one tree covered in pale pink blossoms. It was too far away for me to see what kind of tree it was (not that botany was ever one of my strong points), but there it was, surrounded by the grey-ish, I-just-got-through-winter-looking evergreens and the more stubborn deciduous trees.

And the trees along the wall of the building that ‘shelter’ the bike park- shelter it from the summer sun, but not from the birds- which I noticed last week had these rather solid-looking ‘buds’ on their branches had replaced those buds with soft, fluffy seedpods which would periodically fall in the breeze, covering the bike park in something rather more pleasant than the birds’ contributions.

But this afternoon class was in the opposite, eastern end of the building, but on the same southern side overlooking the quad. The trees there had the same seedpods dangling from them, but looking down at the ground all I could see was bare concrete. So is the western end of the building somehow warmer? Or the breeze there stronger? I doubt that, considering the eastern end of the quad is open, while the western end is blocked off by Building 2 (oh, yes, they were very creative when they were naming the buildings back in the ’50s when they built this place). Or perhaps had the cleaners gone through and swept the place up?

It was a bit cooler today, perhaps because of that thin, high cloud, but the air was a bit clearer- or should I say less murky. My Dad asked me just now if they were going to get the air clean for the Olympics. I’m sure they will, or at least do all that is humanly possible and then some, but it’ll be interesting to see just how they go about it.

So, yeah, I open my eyes and realise that spring is a little further along than I first realised. Kinda fits in with one of the texts we studied in class today.