Last fall my wife and I had a tired and sick maple tree taken down and the stump ground down. We replaced it with a a little horse chestnut tree.

Over the weekend it flowered.  I didn't realise how bizarre horse chestnut flowers looked until today. 

Despite we have been told by the weather man that Wednesday night could bring another blanket of snow there are more encouraging signs of spring.

My lilacs are starting to bud. The forsythia is flowering in the back yard, our lawn is greening up.

This past weekend I cleaned up the backyard--eight bags of garbage. Lots of fallen branches, leaves, garbage that had blown into our backyard and a ton of things that the dogs brought into the backyard.

I also tuned up my bike and my daughter's bike.

Then today, another sure sign and one that I love to see every year.

I took this shot of a dried yucca flower yesterday when hiking around my brother-in-law's house. He lives beside some rough park space with a fabulous view of Pikes Peak when you hike to the top of a hill. I created a photo set on Flickr with quite a few shots of the landscape.