I often find myself giving thanks for living here. Please allow me to recap one of the reasons: how pleasant it is to get to work.

The start of the week brought mild weather fit for a walk-MAX combo. Walking is by far my favorite mode of transportation, and Monday did not disappoint. The trees seemed to be waking along with me, their buds' latent energy erupting in bloom or leaf.

I can be a bit rigid about having a native- and edible-only garden, but my wife pleaded with me to keep the established daphne at our new house. 

Even for a bull-headed dogmatic, it was easy to be convinced once it started blooming - what a fragrance! I seem not to be the only convert, as I could practically float to work on the ocean of fragrance from these daphne flowers throughout my walk.

When I reached Lloyd Center and jumped on the MAX, I pulled out the New York Times book review section. I'm a huge fan of librarians, so it was with relish that I read the review of Marilyn Johnson's quirky book about libraries and the heroes that work there.

Tuesday I wanted to get to work early, so I biked. After fording the Willamette via the Steel Bridge's lower level, Waterfront Park's grove of cherry trees greeted me, covered in pink popcorn. (If you want an indicator of how warm this winter has been, the photo below by Jonathan Maus at BikePortland.org was taken on March 31st, 2006. This year, the trees have been in bloom for at least a week and a half).

My co-editor Scott took the bus yesterday and today. He's a big reader so I'm sure he tore through some erudite fare, but this morning he caught up with his neighbor who was mourning the shearing of his beard to placate his wife. There was also talk about each others dogs.

Who could guess that getting to work could be so enriching!

Daphne photo courtesy of Kaeley McMahan.