[caption id="attachment_1028" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Dogwoods?"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_44.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1028" title="20110412_44" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_44-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I'm not a big nature guy.

I can't tell one type of tree from another, although I usually can recognize cedar trees or weeping willows. And when it comes to bushes or flowers, it gets really difficult. There were a couple of trees out near the entrance to Sun City that I thought might be cherry blossoms, but when I looked on the Internet, I think they might actually be pink dogwoods.

Dogwoods are big in Georgia.

In fact, there's a Dogwood Festival in Atlanta this weekend that I'm hoping my wife and I can get up there to see. We didn't make it to Macon last month for the Cherry Blossom Festival. When Nicole is working, she works 10-12 hours a day, and now that she's working from home, there isn't a whole lot of difference between Saturday and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday.

The only days she has taken off for the last month or two have been for doctor's appointments, and for those rare times when she finally gets tired of working and decides to catch up on her sleep.

So we missed the cherry blossoms. Maybe next year.

[caption id="attachment_1029" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Dogwoods!"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1029" title="slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

But the dogwoods around here -- as well as most of the other foliage -- is really starting to look wonderful.

I have actually been on the golf course five days in a row now, something I have never done in my life. Three of the five days, I have only played nine holes, but that's because I walk and carry my clubs on those days.

It's actually sort of annoying, because although I have a really great Tommy Bahama golf bag, the strap seems to want to keep sliding off my shoulder while I walk. And it's a lot heavier to carry the bag in my hand with the handle.

Playing every day is working wonders for my muscle memory. In the past, when I played once a month or so, it almost always took me five or six holes to get into a groove. But this week, I have hit 230-240 yards off the first tee and have parred the first two holes both of the last two days.

The funny thing is that walking and playing golf is about so much more than the golf.

It's wonderful to be outdoors for two hours or so, and carrying the bag makes it better exercise than just walking three or four miles. And of course I have my iPod with me the whole time, and I can listen to more than 7,000 musical selections on shuffle, or I can listen to one of the 50 or so audiobooks I have on disc.

As for the golf itself, just being out there every day doesn't mean I'll score better every day. I actually played my worst front nine of the last few days today, mostly because I couldn't seem to sink a putt to save my life. Of course, a bad score for me today was 42 -- three pars and six bogeys.

The more I play, the higher my standards get.

And the better the dogwoods look.