walking around the block

This morning Wilbur had his checkup.

He is much more traumatized by visiting the vet than Buzz. Buzz is more stoic -- I think he has a good deal of learned helplessness left over from his kennel dog days....

We got a sweet deal on testing -- heartworm, ehrlichia, one other tick-borne, cbc, blood chem, and fecal test, all for $77 (which is usually about the cost of the chem alone).

The oil-change place is right across the street from the vet. We took Carmen (our red minivan -- remember Carmen SanDiego, in her red coat?) to get her oil changed.

When we got home, I decided Burt could have a walk around the block. (I'm not taking Buzz for walks until his post-chemo cbc later this week says "ok"....)





The block across the street from ours is long.

See the red maple-tree flowers, down a few houses?





The neighborhood was pretty quiet, but we were not alone.





Isn't this a cute little house? And with its forsythia..... Mmmmm.





This little sitting area is on their driveway, next to their house. Too exposed to random passers-by for my sitting/relaxing taste, but we love the colors. Also like the way the driveway's lines are diagonal, from this vantage point.





Can't get too much yellow, after the gray, brown, brown, gray.





Purple is nice, too. Burt can't see what I'm interested in, but he was reasonably patient with my frequent stops. (As I was with his!)







Mostly the trees are still totally bare. It is a gorgeous day.





The other side of the long block. Here's yet another red car in my neighborhood. This one has never been in any of my neighborhood red-car pics..... Now the only question is why there are so many red cars.......

Still appreciating the tree shadows on the sidewalks.





You can see this magnolia in the prev, about level with the red car.





Rhododendron? Azalea? Does the lack of leaves mean azalea?





You have seen this magnolia many times in my "out my upstairs windows" pics. Almost in full bloom (from nearly nothing just last week!).

Is it possible to show you too many magnolia pics?









Back in our own yard. Myrtle/vinca.







We weren't alone in our back yard, either. Blurry pic, alas, so I've 'shopped it a bit.





This is that same terminal maple bud I've been showing you. I was wondering where the leaves were going to come from, and now I'm betting those fringy red things that are in sharp focus in this image will become leaves.





This next image has the flowers in sharp focus. You can really see that they *are* flowers.....