Neighbors, March is busting out all over and good eats

 "She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

   She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

   And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

   And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbor:

   "Winter is dead."

- A.A. Milne

- That poem is called "Daffodowndilly" - it seemed to fit the photo and the mood of my city this week as it shrugs off winter - although it is supposed to drop to the freezing mark tonight.  We'll have to cover the Japonicas, as my dad used to say.  I always think of that when this kind of weather happens, although as far as I know, they didn't have any Japonica in their garden - I think that phrase might have been passed down from my grandmother.

  - The cherry trees are in full blossom this week (this photo snapped on work errand).  Photos never seem to do them justice.  There is even a cherry blossom festival in the city of my birth, Macon, Georgia, this week.  The head of a family owned real estate business in Macon, William A. Fickling, Sr., planted one Yoshino cherry tree on his farm near Macon.  He shared seedlings for others to plant, and now there are more than 250,000 cherry trees spread around our state.  

 - And I've been inspired to cook light and springy things, such as this Grape Tomato, Olive and Spinach pasta.  It was for lunch at work all week.  So good.  You can find the recipe here.  I was using up a box of Ziti pasta, but next time will use Penne, as the recipe suggests.

The funny thing about the photo at top:  I spotted the dandelion and her neighbor, the purple vine flower in front of my car as I was leaving work on Wednesday.  I was squatting down with my phone on the pavement, snapping the photo, when a coworker was leaving the building and called out, "Are you OK?"  He just shook his head when I reported "Just taking a photo of a flower."  :)  May fun and quirky things happen to you this weekend, my friends.  Have a great one!