I adore springtime at Berkeley. Warm, lovely sunshine. Blue, blue skies. And beautiful flowers. It’s funny, but when the weather is really, really nice, I notice. When it’s raining, I notice. When it’s an in-between non-rainy partly sunny/ cloudy sky, I don’t always remember what the day’s been like. With the recent bouts of great weather in the past few weeks though, I’ve been noticing not only the sunny skies, but also the flowers blooming around campus.
On the first day of April, I discovered a sea of purple asters blanketing a gradual incline across from the north side of Memorial Glade, on my way to the Kresge Engineering Library. They were a bright and joyful addition to my day, and the start of my collection of flower photos around campus.
The vibrancy of magenta blossoms on the tree in front of the Campanile caught my eye the following Tuesday morning. The sunlight filtering through the leaves was beautiful as well, and I stopped to take a photo during the 10-minute walk between my Immunology class in LeConte Hall and Language Acquisition class in Tolman Hall.
Friday afternoon near Faculty Glade, rosy bushes of flowers added a playful splash of color to the serene, stately grove of redwood trees in the background.
I happened across many flowers that day, on my trek across campus to International House and then Latimer Hall, for a talk on “Recycling Carbon Dioxide,” by Professor Matthew Kanan from Stanford University on April 10.
Tucked into a cozy patch of dirt by Birge Hall was a fiery bunch of orange flowers, and right outside Hildebrand Hall was a lovely yellow lily and violet agapanthus.
My favorite flowers on campus were the ones neighboring the lawn to the north of the Valley Life Sciences Building. I discovered these cheery pink blossoms after a long day of administering sleep and psychological assessments to participants in the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. I was on my way to a meeting off campus, and the juxtaposition of pink against the bright intensity of blue made me pause and smile. I stood there for a few seconds breathing, smiling, and reaching up to take a photo.
Amidst the hustle bustle of classes, research, and extracurricular activities, it’s nice to take a moment to notice the flowers, and appreciate the wonders in small moments. Berkeley is an amazing place, and the flowers around campus have been a lovely reminder for me of how wonderful it is to be here.
As Missy Franklin shared, “[Berkeley is] so unique. You can go everywhere in the world and never find a place like Berkeley. It’s so special, so beautiful, so diverse. I love that it’s different. I want to try new things. Isn’t that what college is all about?”
