Alles ist schön im Frühling!

I'm not 100% confident that this post's title is grammatically correct, but the sentiment is there. Basically, spring (der Frühling) is awesome. Every year, I forget exactly how much, since I do enjoy snowflakes and being bundled up with tea when it's white outside, plus I have an...unusual number of cute boots (In my defense, B totally encourages this habit). But then it starts to warm up, and you remember that the sun can actually warm and it's not just something that makes it painful to look directly at the bright snow and suddenly, all the flora decide that it's time to wake from their nap.

We haven't had daylight savings time yet on this side of the Atlantic, but it's still light until almost 7 pm, and that's another best thing about spring (if you're counting, that's about 3 "best" things. Don't think too hard about it).

Also - sunshine!!

We had a faux spring a few weeks ago, in which I thought I'd get to store away my winter coat for several months. Luckily, I didn't get around to sending it off to the dry cleaners (yes, I can totes do that on my own now!), since last week the weather got cold again and it snowed off and on for 3-4 days in a row. But I'm taking the plunge today and declaring that this time, spring is here to stay.

So cute!

In the US, the small green spaces peppered around cities are often just that - green. At Harvard Medical, the quad was made of sod squares that were replaced at least once throughout the summer (I believe it was just before reunion - gotta make sure that it looks pretty for the returning alums that are now rich and may want to donate). They are mowed, treated, and probably kept within standard regulations that are set by some higher power. Flowers are severely kept to preplanned and oft-replanted beds.

So I was wonderfully surprised to discover that here in Zurich, the green spaces aren't just green. Many of the pictures here are taken just outside our front (back?) door, and all others are yards of apartment houses on the way to the nearest tram stop. For a girl who grew up with an untamed lawn and a mother who never could have enough flower beds around the yard, it just warms my little heart. It appears that flowers may have been originally planted in beds, but then they are pretty much left alone to spread where they wish as the years pass. Regardless, I love it!

Happy spring everyone!! Special thoughts to Boston/New England friends, who are apparently digging out from the third (or fourth?) late winter snowstorm. May your green spaces soon be bright!

NB: I wrote this post yesterday, but it was raining and I couldn't get flower pictures. I didn't plan at all to actually correlate with the spring equinox - Happy Spring for realz!