Spring starts this Friday, March 20th. Every year at this time my thoughts turn to new blooms and budding trees. The daffodils, the trumpets of spring, are already showing their color, blossoming more and more each day.

The photo above was taken by A. Aubrey Bodine, regarded as one of the finest pictorialists of the Twentieth Century and an iconic member of The Baltimore Sun, who for more than 50 years was to photography what Mencken was to the written word.

The photo, published in The Sun on May 1, 1949, was taken at Sherwood Gardens in the Guilford Community on what was once part of the estate of A. S. Abell, this newspaper's founder. Sherwood Gardens is Baltimore's most famous garden. It was a gift of John W. Sherwood, who opened up his gardens to the public. Today the Gardens are in the care of the Guilford Association with help from Baltimore City.

Here's a link to a gallery of Sun photos from Sherwood Gardens through the years. You can also read more about the history of the gardens, whose famous tulips usually peak the last week in April or the first week of May, in this column by Frederick Rasmussen. The Guilford Community Website has even more information about Sherwood Gardens. And, if you want to read more about A. Aubrey Bodine, I have linked to his daughter, Jennifer Bodine's Website.

Thanks for reading, but remember to get outside and enjoy spring. Maryland has so many beautiful places to enjoy the season.