Wet Tulip A friend from California was visiting here in Maryland a few years ago, and she pulled out pictures to show me of her daughter's wedding in San Diego.  As a photographer, the first thing I noticed was the beautiful sunshine, the deep blue sky, and the puffy white clouds.  I said, "Wow, you had great weather for the wedding."  She gave me a puzzled look and said, "It's like that all the time."

I am a pretty firm believer that if you don't have lousy weather from time to time, you can't truly appreciate great weather.  On my morning walk today, I was reveling in this morning's great weather.  After four days of rain, which has wrecked havoc on so much of the US this week, we are dealing with flooding and sink holes.  We were fortunate not to have the tornado activity that devastated so much of the central part of our nation.  But bad weather aside, it seems that whenever we here in Maryland get clear blue skies and mild temps, we rejoice.

Of course, good weather is all relative.  Farmers and gardeners rejoice when there is rain after a dry spell.  Photographers head out for early morning fog.  Kids cheer at the first sign of snow.

Me?  I'll take a cool, clear, crisp day with sunshine any day of the year.  Just don't give me the high heat and humidity that some of my beach-loving friends are looking forward to.

On my walk today, I decided to leave the camera behind.  My theory was that I would more likely stick with a "power walk" if I did not have my camera.  That was a big mistake.  I missed the deer lying in the grass and the vultures lined up on a rooftop.  There were glowing tulips wet with rain.  My cell phone camera was put to good use, but alas, most of the pix were not of the quality that my camera would have taken, save for one.

I'm spoiled with photo walking, so my camera will go with me from now on, regardless of the weather.  And if Mother Nature wants to throw a few more great weather days our way in May, I'll take them.

Click on any photo to enlarge.