Norway maple flowering

The last two years, I tracked the progress of the Norway maple flowers as the emerged in the tree by my balcony.  For spring 2011, that's at Spring emerges in the Norway maple.  For 2012, it's at The Norway maple's March transformations.  That tracking came to an end on March 31, 2012, when they cut down the tree I had been watching.

I don't know if it's because I tracked it closely the past two years, or whether Norway maple just holds a special place in my heart anyway, but I thought it was beautiful when I saw this:

That was April 12. In 2011, that was how the Norway looked April 20.  In 2012, it looked that way March 23.

Now, the Norway maples are fully flowering.

April 25:

April 26: