Friday, March 8, 2024

Pink Clouds


Here's one positive side-effect of walking to the doctor's office on Wednesday: I passed this corner with this amazing blooming tree. This whole street is lined with these clouds of pale pink. It's quite a sight!

After posting about that wayward street sign yesterday I got motivated to do something about it. During some down time at work I Googled the local roads authority (per Rachel's suggestion) and they had an online page to report street problems. They didn't have an "abandoned sign" category, but they had a "missing sign" one, so I chose that, and explained the problem in the narrative. It even let me upload a picture. I got the whole thing filled out, hit submit, and WHAM! I got an error page that not only told me my report didn't go through, but that I had been BANNED FROM THE WEB SITE!

I tried it twice with the same result. So I waited until I got home and did it from here, and it worked. I guess something about our firewalls at school freaked out the submission software.

Anyway, we'll see what happens.


Our ornamental cabbages are looking pretty sad these days. I believe this is what's know as "bolting" -- basically, they're setting flowers. I moved the pot from our front porch to the back, where at least no one can see them. Time to buy some new annuals, but where? Our Homebase (the British equivalent of Home Depot or Lowe's) closed in December, and that's where I always bought all our plants! More research is required...

24 comments:

Poppy and Me said...

Most supermarkets have bedding plants. I get mine from Morrisons. usually good and reasonable.Love the pink almond blossom tree, Val

Sue in Suffolk said...

The Flowering Cherry in my garden is just a lovely at the moment and the grass is pink as the petals blow down.

gz said...

Seeing the ornamental cherry trees and the blackthorn (slow) blossom in the hedgerows lifts the spirits, and you hold your breath (metaphorically!) hoping that we don't get a hard cold spell..
Cabbages reaching for the sky! Not what you wanted, but quite attractive

Yael said...

I can already imagine how you travel with the lost sign in a train or taxi like you traveled with the IKEA cart.

Moving with Mitchell said...

Maybe you can take the sign home and make a table. Or mount on your side wall for Mrs. Kravitz’s viewing pleasure. I would love to see that street of flowering trees.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

I imagined that you were banned from the website for having dirty thoughts so it's rather surprising that they let you enter when you got home. I expect that the sign was stupidly left by sub-contractors hurrying on to their next profitable job location.

Michael said...

Trees like the one you photographed are beginning to bloom here in central Virginia. A sign that spring is definitely on the way. Yesterday it almost hit 70 degrees.

ellen abbott said...

that is a pretty tree. the red buds and ornamental pears have been in full bloom here the past two weeks.

banned from the site! that seems a little extreme instead of just saying there was an error due to xxx.

Ellen D. said...

Lovely trees!
What blooms will you put on the front porch now?

Ms. Moon said...

One of the my favorite things about this time of year is seeing wild plums blooming in the woods. Just as you say- clouds of pink. Like little unexpected gifts.

Boud said...

Yesterday I saw a cherry tree starting to blossom, just a haze of pink right now.
I'm glad you were able to get the sign reported. You were certainly determined!

Jeanie said...

We'll probably start to see our flowering trees bloom in early April this year (often they are later). I am going to try to see if the geraniums I brought in to winter made it and if it's warm enough (40s, I think) take them outside. I've never done the wintering before so we'll see how it goes! I love the ornamental cabbages, even when the get tall!

Sharon said...

It looks like something has been munching on those cabbages.
You are probably right about the firewall issue. My work org has lots of restrictions. It will be interesting to hear if they take note and go get that sign.

The Bug said...

Pretty tree! I'm glad you found somewhere to report the sign, although also I still think it would look great on your desk.

Red said...

It's funny the sign and stand didn't go on a trip and end up in different places.

Kelly said...

I guess the school doesn't want kids reporting things to the local roads authority! 😉

That tree is beautiful. Everything like that is in full bloom here, too.

Margaret said...

School internet is indeed wonky. In order to lock down certain sites, they go overboard and make it mostly unusable. I love flowering trees, especially the pink ones.

Susan said...

Spring flowering trees are beautiful and they really do lift the spirits. Streets lined with flowering trees make great displays of color. Hopefully someone will see your sign removal request and take it away. Currently, the grocery stores have some great flowering plants in pots at a reasonable price. A nice Spring flowering plant would look lovely by your door.

Unknown said...

If you have got one near you Aldi have great value Primroses in this week very vibrant colours.
Jane

Rachel Phillips said...

Good luck with response from the local authority re. the sign. In answer to Yorkshire Pudding who would love to prove me wrong, after all I am the reason for his comment moderation to keep know alls like me out, it is the responsibility of local authorities to authorise diversions and nobody else - not sub-contractors or utility works people. They do their jobs, the local authorities control where the traffic goes as a consequence of works. These signs are around everywhere on roads when works are finished and are picked up eventually by LAs' because they are needed.

Bob said...

The Dogwoods are starting to bloom around ehre and the pinks and whites are stunning!

Catalyst said...

We have lots of those pink trees too, along with white ones. They make Spring a welcome season.

Andrew said...

The school might one day report a problem on a street but it won't be able to. Interesting.

Prunus do put on a good show. Imagine forests of them as can be seen in Japan.

River said...

Ornamental cabbage is Kale, just not the edible kind. Let it set flowers and then gather the seeds later, you could have whole rows of pots with pretty kale in them.