Framing Jefferson

The most popular monuments to be photographed during Cherry Blossom season are the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial. After six years of Cherry Blossom photo excursions, I have plenty of images of both accompanied by blossoms.

While FDR, and now the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, also reside in the Cherry Blossoms zone, but they don't stand out among the blossoms as the Jefferson and Washington tributes do.

This year, I spent a lot of time photographing the Jefferson with the Cherry Blossoms. Today's photograph is one of the better images from my first visit.

Cloudy Sky Sunset

Cloudy skies make for amazing sunsets. Over the past week, we've had cloudy or overcast skies around sunset, producing spectacular color displays in the sky.

It is as if the clouds form a special canvas for the sun's rays to paint the sky between the horizon line and the edge of the cloud cover.

The daily panorama often reminds me of the "calm before the storm," and serves as a quiet, sweet prelude before the rain and thunderstorms begin.

Honoring Your Calling

Oprah Winfrey once said:

There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honor your calling. It's why you were born. And how you become most truly alive.

Each spring, flowers honor their calling to bloom. Unlike flowers, we don't have to wait until spring for our lives to bloom. We can start blooming any day.

Springing into a New Season

Warmer weather following a mild winter brought spring flowers out much earlier this year. Around every corner in my neighborhood, daffodils, magnolias and now even tulips, are blossoming and bringing color to local gardens.

Even the National Parks Service announced this week that the Cherry Blossoms would be blooming much earlier than originally projected; peak bloom on the Tidal Basin is now projected for March 20-23.

While I'm excitedly planning my spring photo outings over the next week, I am saddened by the early arrival of spring. An early spring means that the plants won't fully develop before blooming. As a result, their stems will be shorter and blooms won't last as long.

Is climate change the cause of this fast-tracked spring? Perhaps. Only time will tell. However, an earlier, shorter spring season does encourages us to stop right now and smell the flowers, because who knows how long we will have to enjoy them this year.

Where to Start Finding Ourselves

In an article in O, The Oprah Magazine, Anne Lamott wrote:

We begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be.

Be Anything

Academy Award-winning costume designer Sir Cecil Beaton once said:

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.

Well Sir Cecil, I'm working on that.

Cherry Blossom Peak Announcement Day

Every year, I look forward to the day the National Parks Service with the National Cherry Blossom Festival announce the peak bloom dates for the Cherry Blossoms. And today is the day!

Once the peak bloom dates are announced, then my planning begins. I'll mark the dates for my early morning walks beneath the Cherry Blossoms with my camera. This year, I'm planning on taking a cruise on the Potomac River during peak bloom. I'll have to book that soon after the announcement as well.

 I'm guessing that this year's strange weather may bring the peak bloom date out earlier in March than usual, but you never know. I'll update this post later today once the peak dates are revealed.

Hopefully, it will be a spectacular bloom this year, especially since we'll be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the city of Tokyo, Japan's gift of 3,000 cherry trees to the city of Washington, DC in 1912.

UPDATE 3/1/12 10:58 AM ET: 2012 peak bloom is projected to be March 24-31. If this projection holds true, it will be the first time since moving to DC in 2005 that I will miss the blossoms. I'll be on vacation that week. Well, here's to 2013.