Spring at last?

We're usually awash in  plum and cherry blossoms  at this time of year, but our unusually cold , late spring slowed things down. This tree in West Vancouver is finally starting to make a show.

In West Vancouver on Thursday, the colours were so psychedelically vivid -- the grass so green, the ocean the bluest blue, the daffodils a splash of sunlight -- that I wondered what had happened. Then I realized that it was our first day of bright sunshine after days, weeks, a month of grey skies and rain. I'd become so used to living in black and white that colour was a shock.

It is the end (we hope) of one of our grimmest winters -- snow, ice and cold since December, capped by a March that started with snow and ended with days of unrelenting rain.

 But on Thursday, the outdoor tables of our coffee shop were full; a great pink bush of rhododendrons was in bloom, and with a little effort  we found some cherries or plums (I can never tell which) and magnolias opening up against a blue, blue sky. John captured  a few of them:

A white magnolia starts putting on its show.

Along the West Vancouver seawall, a place to sit and a great big rhododendron  in bloom.

This magnolia is way ahead of the one in my garden, which won't start blooming for another week at least.