Primavera

After what for us Californians was a long cold (but not lonely;-) winter, spring has spectacularly sprung in Italy.  

All of the photos in this post were taken between March 29 and April 9.

One of the first blossoms to appear is Forsythia, unmistakable by its abundant bright yellow flowers.

Bulbs are popping too.  Daffodils...

Tulips...

Including this unusual (for us) multicolored tulip:

We really got into the spring swing on the first Friday in April.  Our friend Paola Salvioni invited us to her family's country house to help prune her olive trees.  She has 250 of them; we probably did a dozen.

The Happy Pruners

Everywhere you go in Italy you see tall slim poplar trees planted in rows, in various stages of growth.  They are grown for paper pulp and are clear-cut harvested after 16 years.  Bare sticks all winter, they now are starting to leaf out.

We are used to yellow and pink poppies so the deep red ones that grow along all the roads here were a surprise.

And now dear followers of our blog, it is time for another contest.  You must think I have lost my mind after the underwhelming response to the last contest, but here it is:  We see not one, but two different kinds of flowering trees that we refer to as yellow puffballs, and have no idea what they are.  So the contest is:  Identify the yellow puffballs from the following mug shots.  The winner will get an honorary degree in horticulture from the Tanya Keener Botanical Gardens, Crawford, Colorado.  And, no Tanya, you cannot enter the contest because we need someone who has a clue to be the judge.

Yellow Puffballs number 1:

and yellow puffballs number 2:

To close by bringing it back home, the road to our place is lined with small plants with profuse flowers (at right), while some of the trees have turned out to be fruit trees that have burst into bloom.

Spring is wonderful just about everywhere, and for us it is especially wonderful in il nostro anno italiano.