Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
By A.E. Housman
I just love the trees at this time of year. The blossom appears like small fluffy clouds delicately shaded with the lightest of pink. In Japan, I’ve heard that they actively celebrate the coming of the cherry blossom. Wouldn’t that be a lovely tradition to follow? It makes me wonder about what other changes in our environment should be noted and celebrated. The first bumble bee sighting? The turning of the leaves to red and gold?
What change would you like to see celebrated and why?
March 25, 2008 at 10:15 am
Amy, I think I’ve mentioned snowdrops before, but that’s the trigger for me. As soon as I see them I know everything’s going to be all right again.
Joanna
March 25, 2008 at 11:13 am
you reminded me of a video my brother took in Japan at the cherry blossom festival in Japan. It looks like an amazing atmosphere.
March 25, 2008 at 11:24 am
Considering it, you can celebrate so many changes that you will end up with celebrating nature and life all in all.
That you can do each and every day.
March 25, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Cherry trees blossoming has become something of a ‘thing’ in the USA too as we have many places, some quite famous, with a lot of them!
I personally celebrate ‘Dandelion Season’, the early part of spring when the dandelions take over and add yellow to the bright green lawns!
I love dandelions, they are natures anarchists!
March 25, 2008 at 12:50 pm
The only thing I can think of here in my fair city is the first mosquito sighting… but rather than a celebration, it would probably be more of a ‘call to arms’…
Oh, wait, we can have the blossoming of the lilacs… they’re the first flowers to really come alive in the spring… they definitely herald the coming of warm weather.
March 25, 2008 at 1:13 pm
there is a cherry blossom festival each year in washington, d.c. i have heard that it’s something to see.
but here in appalachia it’s dogwood — and there are dogwood festivals to celebrate it. i’ll try to get some photos when they come out, assuming this freeze didn’t kill them (as it did last year).
for my part though i’d have a festival for the lilacs. there’s nothing i love more!
March 26, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Snowdrops are such a special flower to me too, Joanna. In fact one of my earliest memories includes them.
Thanks for the link to the video, Wonderwebby! It does look like an incredible atmosphere – all those happy voices united in chatter and song and laughter. It makes me wish all the more that I could visit someday.
What a lovely sentiment, Despil
It so funny, Daz, after I read your comment I walked down the road to catch the bus and noticed that one of my neighbours had 3 bright yellow, lionheaded dandelions growing in his front lawn. A small explosion of anarchy in my otherwise sleepy suburb!
I think I’d rather celebrate the lilacs than the mosquitoes, Nenette
Thanks for the info on the dogwood festivals, Captain Stardust. I’ve learned so much from these comments on celebrating seasonal changes! Oh, and why don’t you have your own private festival for the lilacs? Send pictures!
March 29, 2008 at 4:23 am
In Wilmington there is an azalea festival.
This weekend Atlanta is having an Earth Hour and turning its lights off on Saturday evening for an hour. Yea! Though I don’t live in Atlanta, I think I shall join them.
My Japanese Cherry is blooming now. Houseman said it wears white for Eastertide. That was true this year.
I always know it is spring when the boring bees hatch out and start buzzing in the eaves of my porch…chewing the wood of the beams into the soft orange sawdust falling away from their labors. I do not welcome them but cannot manage to whip out the can of Raid Wasp and Hornet spray. Such a violent thing to do. I guess the bugs will eventually eat my house. What an image!…
What a digression.
April 20, 2008 at 10:39 am
[...] by amypalko under Inspiration, Photography Now, maybe it’s because of Daz Cox’s comment on this post about celebrating dandelion season, but I have been seeing dandelions everywhere [...]