The cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin get all the glory, but for beauty themselves, I actually prefer the Kwanzan cherry trees.

They bloom a little later than their Yoshino cousins, which also means you are way more likely to get a chance to see them without having to duck crowds.

The pink ones are part of a grove on Hains Point, near where I showed you the shot a few weeks ago. The white ones were next to the Potomac.

I have a couple things on the agenda this weekend:

I won a drawing for being among the people who visited the farmers market every week this winter. (Adhering to COVID travel restrictions meant I was here, and I’m not really deterred by crummy weather — or, apparently, threats of insurgents.) I have to go pick up the gift card (to a vegetarian sausage maker) at a new-to-me farmers market Saturday morning.

Sarah and I are going to head to the Wharf in the afternoon for an in-person event put on by the Quebecois government where they’re going to be giving away samples of maple snow candy. We are both big proponents of maple syrup and it would be unneighborly not to sample Canada’s if they want to share with us.

If it’s not raining, I may suggest to Rudi that we go the Rock Creek Kings show at one of the local parks in the evening, but he has a charity bike ride the next morning, so he may want to spend some time inside.

Sunday, I may try to get across the river to the library there to pick up a hold that’s ready for me, and, if I’m lucky, some of my spring greens should be ready to harvest from the garden. I don’t know that I have enough for two salads, but we’ll see.

While I was out and about on Saturday, I noticed the sure signs that spring is coming: flowers were popping up, in border beds, in the wild, and in the park:

Today ended up being a very pleasant afternoon, with the sun emerging periodically. I took the long way home from the Cleveland Park neighborhood through Rock Creek Park and captured this shot along the way.

(As best as I could tell where the beam of light hit did not contain pirate treasure.)

I’ve decided that this spring I might be willing and ready to play outdoor volleyball again, in part for the mental health benefits it offers. I’ve emailed my former teammates to see if any of them are interested, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that some of them might be available.

A couple of my teammates played outdoors last fall, and the report I heard after the first couple weeks was that the league was was relatively good about mask wearing and social distancing from other teams and on the sidelines. Volleyball is one of those sports where there you do end up in close proximity to your teammates and some competitors, and some contact with teammates can happen as you’re chasing after a ball and trying not to knock each other down. So it’s not without risk. But it’s also not basketball, where it can’t be played without automatically coming into contact with everyone else on the court. And being outdoors definitely helps lower the risks of spreading disease.

How are you thinking about risk management as we move into year #2 of COVID? Will you continue to stay home and isolated? Were you never paying attention to those recommendations to begin with?

I know, I know. It’s graffiti. I’m not supposed to appreciate it. And, yet, it made me smile, hypocrite that I am.