A Crowd of Daffodils...and More!

For the last several years, I have planted more and more daffodils, and this is the best year yet! My early bloomers are fading now, but the middle bloomers are all opened and are stunning. I have many different kinds...I think I counted 12 or more. I just love all the different colors together in one vase. To paraphrase Joan Rivers, one can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many different kinds of daffodils.

My Easter cactus plant has been threatening to bloom any day, and somehow its first bloom actually opened Easter morning! Now, how did it know it was Easter?!

Yesterday afternoon the first yellow magnolia bloom opened, and by the time we returned from dinner at my daughter-in-law's house, many blooms had opened. Today the weeping cherry turned pink. The cherries along the drive are in bloom, as is the pear tree. My bluebells are peeking through, and soon they will take the place of the fading first-blooming daffodils. Isn't this time of year wonderful?!

I woke up early this morning to watch the launch of the space shuttle. It is fascinating to watch the astronauts crawling through the shuttle hatch and then being strapped into their seats. They then lie there on their backs for several hours until launch time. Within 90 seconds of launch the shuttle is going 1000 miles per hour....and in only about 8 and 1/2 minutes they are in orbit. It's amazing! I learned by listening to the NASA TV channel today that launch times are decided by when the earth rotates the Kennedy Space Center into the same plane of the space station's orbit, so that the shuttle can be launched into an orbit that will allow it to catch up to the space station. After this one, there are only 3 more shuttle flights to the space station, then the shuttle fleet is being retired. In the future, astronauts will be "cosmonauts" - launched to the space station in a Russian space capsule. A couple of days ago, 3 were sent up to the station - 2 Russian men and one American woman. The Russian capsule is very tiny and the 3 space travelers are really packed into it. The bravery of all these people is astonishing....but the view of the earth from space must surely make it all worth while!