Today I spent most of my time indoors working on the final proofs for the April issue of In Stride. But when I did venture outside it felt like spring. The flowers are in bloom in Upperville, where the beauty of our neighborhood traffic calming is evident in more ways than just the slower vehicles. The hundreds of daffodils VDOT planted are basking yellow in the bright sunlight, the trees are budding and the songbirds are out collecting nesting materials among the dried grasses.

Even though I enjoy photographing flowers, I’m never really satisfied with the images. You can’t really capture the soul of a flower through a camera lens. Perhaps that’s why painters seem a step closer; they can layer paint on their canvases and mimic that deep three-dimensional effect to a greater degree. But with spring colors all around, I’ll always keep on trying.