April is heralded in Baltimore by a flood of color. Wherever you go here in East Baltimore, the narrow streets are shrouded in magnolia, cherry, and plum blossoms; entire neighborhoods of neat brick rowhomes all but disappear behind the trees. The hilltop in Patterson Park is vivid, visible from blocks away, the pagoda wearing its spring dress of bright magnolia flowers.
The weather is gentle and mild. For a few precious weeks, we become oblivious to the morning weather report; Jane and I walk here and there in the city, wearing any old pair of shirt and shorts like we once did in California. We walk to the harbor and climb the steps up Federal Hill. We sit beside the marina in Fells Point and watch the dog-walkers go by. My parents visit with Evelyn, and after touring Homewood, we show them around the medical campus, the cherry trees blooming in front of the Dome.
In the springtime, all of your neighbors move with great purpose - a smile in their step and the energy of the new season upon them. But watch them long enough, and you will see them stop in their tracks, suddenly and admiringly, unable to ignore the spectacle of the city around them. It is truly a charming thing.
