As I mentioned in my previous post, the weather was spectacular yesterday. In fact, the best since I returned home from my trip to China. It was exactly the weather I’ve been hoping for for the past 2 weeks – sunshiny, warm, blue sky, and cloudless. This weather got me so excited that the moment my mom and I returned home from dropping a student we’ve been hosting off at the university for his TOEFL exam, I ran for my camera.

“I’m gonna go ’round the block, mom.” I said with excitement. My mom groaned, catching up on the latest gossip among her inner circle of friends. I exited via the garage and as I stood on the driveway, I took a large deep breath, filling my lungs with fresh cool air. Then I looked around. Where shall I start? Hmm… 

Ding! There’s my winner! I strode across the street to the dark maroon tree I’ve been staring from my bedroom window. I have never seen the tree up close and it turned out, it wasn’t maroon at all but a dark shade of pink. I held the camera up at the tree and attempted a macro when the wind suddenly picked up. Great, are you kidding me?

After some teeth-clenching shots which I later had to scrap, I gave up and made my way to the mouth of the neighborhood. Look at that beautiful sky! And that sun! Finally, sunshine. I decided to walk a lap around the block, allowing the wind to finish blowing. You can’t blow forever, Wind!

And indeed I was right. After a lap, the wind had calmed to a light breeze. That’s much better. So I decided to photograph the flowers from the shade tree that’s located diagonally across from our backyard. That task proved to be difficult because the tree is located behind the sun. So just about every angle would make the flowers look darker than it seemed. Fortunately, I found the correct angle right before the wind picked up again.

And another lap we go!

Here’s a perspective from the tall grass growing across the street from where I live. It was when I snapped this picture I realized this was the first time I wandered the neighborhood this spring and I believe I’ve missed a lot being in China. In the previous year, I probably do my first “walk-around” in early-March. So, yes, I have missed quite a bit this year.

After the second lap, the wind had at last subsided and I realized I should probably head home since my mom told me we’re just coming home for a few minutes. So before I went in and called this little wander “the end”, I strode across the street one more time and attempted a macro of the “dark pink flower” tree.

Please check out my Instagram profile for more pictures!

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