Tulips on Michigan Avenue

It around this time each year that I wonder if I've gone soft. Every other photo I take is of a flower.

But as a Chicagoan -- even a somewhat tomboyish Chicagoan -- I cannot help but rejoice each spring as a see the flowers bloom from what only a few days before had been cold, muddy ground.

Spring comes so fast here, and is so fleeting. Flowers aren't flowers, they are relief from a too-long winter.