Fast Forward

After a rather cool Spring, we have had several days in the 90s (It has since dropped 30 degrees in 12 hours, but that's another post!).

The most astonishing byproduct of the heat wave has been watching our slowly unfolding Spring suddenly switch to fast forward.

Our silver maple shook out her little green parasols and is abruptly covered in leaves. Mxyl's alien tulips are in their full (bizarre) glory. Our last daffodils went pffffft. Our viburnum switched from green to white overnight. And Blue Streak turned from blue to yellow.

Pollen.

I have never seen this much pollen at one time! It lies thickly on the side of the road and passing cars swirl up clouds of yellow. People who have never thought of having hay fever are now sneezing and coughing and convinced they have the swine flu (but that's another post!).

On Monday, I let the kids wash Blue Streak. Not so much to clean the van as to cool off and play with the hose. A good thing, too! The yellow dust resettled before the water dried. I am hoping to sample some pollen and try looking at it under the microscope.

On the plus side, the combination of very damp ground (from days of rain before the heat wave) and the warm temps have given the annuals the kids picked out a great start!