Two more weeks.... and a cloud hangs overhead

I'm documenting Meadowlark's spring flowers every two weeks (and surprisingly have made a good show of going there on schedule!) but in the back of my mind this whole time has been "oh boy, we are that much closer to my trip to Italy and Switzerland with my parents". 

Howevuh.  Mother Nature shows her benign and beautiful side in a gentle Washington DC spring...  but her wrath and fury through a volcano in Iceland.  Is she a woman scorned?  Cosmic justice for the UK banking system for bringing Iceland to its knees?  Is it just blind luck that this volcano (Eygasfiugyrugryugreysasouffull - close enough) happens to be under the jet stream?  The ramifications are becoming more dire with each passing day.  The hell with "my little vacation".  This is going to be a European wide (if not global) catastrophe if the planes can't get up in the sky anytime soon.  And I'm not talking about people on vacation, or business travel.  I'm talking about global trade.  The only good thing to come out of this may be that oil prices should drop precipitously after another week goes by. 

At any rate - serenity now.  Enjoy the photos.  Oh yeah - and most of the below are with my BRAND new Canon 7D!  I bought it yesterday.  I have the 24-105 F4L lens on it.

This one was taken with my old Canon 30D using the 35mm F1.4L:

Two more weeks have gone by...

I am making a concerted effort to visit Meadowlark every two weeks to photograph the progress of spring.  Little by little, as the warm days become the norm and not the anomaly, the buds unfurl and blossoms abound.  I visited during my lunch on Friday this time and was surprised to see even more families wandering around than the previous weekends (although I suspect the cherry blossoms have something to do with it!). 

Look at the photos from yesterday, versus two similar scenes from two weeks ago.

For reference, here are the previous blog posts:

http://skywalkerbeth.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-difference-two-weeks-makes.html

http://skywalkerbeth.blogspot.com/2010/03/were-heading-towards-spring-hooray.html

Friday April 2:

Saturday March 20:

And here are a few more from April 2 just for good measure:

From Florida to China and back home again

What a week I had last week.  Family drama.  Broken bones, airplane rides.  Euchre in a hospital room all day while waiting for Dad's hip surgery - with a brief lunch overlooking the beach (literally "over the beach").  Flew home that evening, and back to work the very next day and then the weekend - dinner out with friends and a visit to the National Geographic to see the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit from China.  Late exhibit - left the National Geographic at almost midnight.  Gotta love living in metro DC!  Sunday was my home day with my kitties.