Flora and fauna report: Local edition

I knew it was coming, but as soon as I got back to Minnesota, I saw that spring had really arrived. There were leaves on the trees and the grass was green! Today I ran at lunch and headed down one of St. Paul's side streets, which I rarely do. Turns out side streets are much better for plant-watching than the busy thoroughfares!

You know, as much as I love beautiful greenery (as evidenced by the many photos I share on my blog), I really know diddly about plants and plant identification.  That's funny and sort of dumb because my dad had a greenhouse set-up at our old house and my mom continues to be a very avid gardener, so you'd think I could have absorbed some of their knowledge. You probably remember my ambitious quest to grow basil and mint last year and the predators I encountered.  My goal this year is to sustain basil and mint without squirrel-related interruptions.  Maybe I should have included some sort of green thumb goal in my 101 list.

Anyway, what I really want to know is, what are these little blue flowers?

They are popping up around St. Paul this week - sometimes they are scattered around an entire yard!  Does everyone know what they are except me? When I have a yard, I want a whole ton of these.

And the trees are going crazy!  They create a beautiful new shadow on the sidewalk, but I'll spare you from more shadows-on-sidewalk photos...for now.

What is this tree?  I'd like to order some of these for my future yard, too.

Finally, I promised you flora and fauna via this post's title and you are probably frantically curious about what fauna is about to swoop in.

This was the best sight of my run - also seen in a St. Paul yard.

A BEAR!!!!!

Happy Thursday, friends.