"I must have flowers, always always!"

... said my mother recently, and Claude Monet before her. Isnt springtime amazing? It always seems to me like its too good to be true. I feel one hundred percent happier on a daily basis now that theres some flora in the world. How lucky and lovely it is to see flowers, flowers everywhere, whenever you walk outside? We humans must find them so beautiful because we evolved from little furry pollinators--I feel like, Im inherently, biologically drawn to them. I really cant imagine a single thing more beautiful, can you? Its like theyre too much, sometimes, it makes me giddy!  To me, flowering trees are especially remarkable; theyre so unbelievably decadent! But with the end of April approaching, most of them already giving way to leaves, which would be sad, sort of, if it didnt mean summer was right around the corner. Here in Pittsburgh, anyway. And Ive discovered that Bloomfield is aptly named: people do a really good job of keeping their gardens beautiful in our neighborhood! For the most part, they feature lots and lots of candy-colored tulips, which are one of my faves! I only wish we had a garden, too! Though looking at other peoples gardens is free, and easy!

Have you ever seen/read Michael Pollans The Botany of Desire? In it he discusses how flowers (specifically, tulips) have exploited our love of beauty in order to prosper, referencing Hollands golden-age tulipomania as the height of the species exploitation of this human desire. Of course, its ridiculous to imagine spending the equivalent of thousands and thousands of dollars on flower bulbs... but also, looking around the neighborhood on my walks to and from work this week, I can sort of understand their obsession. I really truly cant imagine anything more beautiful! And I believe there are sillier ways to spend ones money. So obsessed with flowers am I of late, I sat Felix down to watch Disneys Alice in Wonderland the other day, specifically for this part:

which backfired horribly, as he now asks me to sing 'the flower song from the funny show' at least five times a day. But I suppose its better than his other most popular requests, the theme songs from Thomas the Tank Engine slash Bob the Builder... not quite as romantic, in my opinion.