It was good to see the Chicago Botanic Garden awakening from its long winter sleep today. Stretching its arms and giving a bit of a yawn, it welcomed us back for another year of spectacular flowers and foliage. Everything was neat and tidy, all the winter debris cleared away and emerging tulip leaves promise a beautiful show on the Esplanade in a few weeks.
Over in the English Walled Garden, a robin watched me as I stopped to take a picture or two.
The waterfall is yet to begin its cascade down towards the lake but the birds were singing and you could almost hear Mother Nature rolling up her sleeves, spitting on her hands and murmuring, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”
A stroll around the immaculately-kept Japanese Garden showed me that it won’t be too long before the azaleas are in bloom. All kinds of buds were showing on the branches of shrubs and trees.
If it’s true that “the earth laughs in flowers” then it was positively giggling like a giddy schoolgirl today as hundreds of brightly-colored crocus poked their heads out of the grass in front of the Carillon Tower.
Walking back through the Sensory Garden towards Spider Island, I was filled with anticipation, thinking about all the wonderful things that the garden will have to show us in the coming months now that it is finally awake.
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The Nature of Things 
A very striking picture of the robin among the signs of spring.
Thanks, Tom! I was lucky that he was perched on top of the wall at eye level and wasn’t inclined to move around too much so I was able to take my time with the shot.
Happy bees.
Always a good sign. Thanks for stopping by.
Haven’t seen a crocus or scilla siberica yet around here. Must be patient…
Hopefully it won’t be too much longer.
Love the robin 🙂
I have pictures of robin in my Flickr stream
Thanks, Indira. Perhaps you could post a link to your Flickr stream so I can check it out.
I have a link already in my blog page 🙂
Thanks, Indira! I found it.
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Beautiful garden and great shots
Thank you, Scott! And thanks for stopping by and commenting. I appreciate it.
A wonderful uplifting gallery
Thanks, Dahlia!
Great shot of the bee with pollen on his leg at the white crocus!
Thank you! I was hoping he wouldn’t fly off before I had a chance to catch him.
Love the Robin – different and yet so similar to our English Robins.
Thanks, Gill. I prefer the little English robins. They’re so much more dainty. I’ll always remember one flying down to perch on my Dad’s garden fork as he took a break from gardening many years ago. Both the UK and US robins are very bold. Whenever I’m working in the garden here, especially in the Spring, I’m usually accompanied by a robin awaiting its chance to dash in and grab a tasty morsel.
Beautiful images, and great pictures of the bird and the bee.
Thanks, Anita! And thanks for visiting.
My pleasure!
Great photos as always Sue. Not much sign of life around here yet, and buckling down for yet another Winter Storm!
Thanks, Jane! We’ve been getting quite a bit of rain these past few days but thankfully no snow. I hope the weather improves soon over there in Michigan and also up in Wisconsin where they’ve had more than enough snow.
Beautiful photos capturing that spring has sprung moment…such lovely colours.
Thanks, Lletty. I’m glad that I went to the Garden when I did. I don’t think it’s stopped raining since. Still, at least that’s better than the weather they are getting up north where my daughter reported more than a foot of snow. I guess Spring hasn’t reached them yet.
Goodness, still snowing!
This was like a breath of fresh air, Sue. You guys have had more then your share of cold.
Well, I guess I spoke too soon. This morning we woke up to snow! Not a huge amount, but enough to make me think that Mother Nature is playing another one of her tricks.
You’ll get there… it’s always nice to see spring wake up.
Wonderful place and beautiful shots.
Thank you!