Flowers And Oak Tree Catkins

Above and below, two examples of why Spring is my favorite time of year. It's the time of year I am thankful to be a photographer! Of course it is not actually officially Spring yet, but it's been feeling like Spring nearly all Winter long!  

Apparently these are called catkins. Something I just learned tonight when I Googled "oak tree blooms." I stumbled upon a post on aluminut.blogspot.com about the mess these leave in your yard. Now, I have never been one to care too much about these littering the yard, but it did remind me of last year's pollen. I tell you what! I have never seen anything like it. Cars in Columbus were covered in pollen deeper than they've ever been covered in snow. I remember at the apartment, someone had made use of the pollen by wroting "For Sale" in the yellow dust that had thickly accumulated on a car that sat for more than a few hours and was over taken in the yellow mess.

It was the only year pollen has ever affected me, I had never had allergies before!

But hopefully it won't be that bad this year.

Anyway, I have been around some kind of oak tree all my life, so I am very familiar with the sight of these blooms. I have always noticed them for some reason, I don't know exactly what made me observe them over anything else, but I have. However, I never knew a proper name. Until tonight.

Catkins.

The word catkin is a calque from the Dutch katteken, meaning "kitten", on account of the resemblance to a kitten's tail. - wikipedia