Already Spring ?

It's been a few days that we've noticed on the side of the roads that trees seemed to believe spring has started. We can see all over the place cherry trees fully flourishing, almost insulting the winter with their pinkness. This afternoon I decided I would go on a walk around the neighborhood to try to capture some of the spring spirit. I didn't have to go very far, right around the corner there was this little plaza with a modern urban "art" sculpture surrounded by cherry blossoms. A woman and her dog were reading there enjoying the view.

You can even see our apartment in the background, we're living on the facing corner at the 10th floor of the greenish tower in the background.

The sculpture is entitled Leland #1, and I have to admit I'd never have thought of taking its picture if it weren't for the surrounding pink.

Everybody was walking their dog around or were enjoying the air there and felt quite chatty so I ended up in more than one conversation. I probably chatted 15 minutes with that 88 years old tomorrow man that was telling me how he had never seen spring that early here and he had been around for quite a while (he talked me about his first memories of Oregon when he came from Ohio in the 1940s). Like him, I find it hard to imagine living in Portland without a view on Mount Hood...