Pink Confetti

Pink Confetti
            “Are there buds showing yet?” we ask each other in spring when it’s time for cherry trees to show signs of impending blossoms. We planted a small cherry tree in front of our little house decades ago when we moved in. It was a thrill every year when it bloomed.
            As noted in a story I recently shared with readers, “The Cherry Tree (Small Things),” our sweet little Akebono cherry tree gradually stopped blossoming, and last year it didn’t even produce leaves.
            We were sad to lose the tree we’d loved for so many years, but it gave us reason to plant a new one. As noted in the story, we planted the new cherry tree right after a beloved neighbor passed away. We decided the new tree would honor her memory.
            One month to the day after our neighbor’s passing, the buds on our new cherry tree started to open. With a bit of sunshine, the blossoms started bursting open like popcorn popping. I left in the morning seeing a few open petals and came home in the afternoon to see huge bursts of white-pink blossoms.
            The photo featured in this post was taken on the third day of the blossoms opening. It is already close to full bloom.
            We are grateful for the brief but dramatic exhibit our cherry tree puts on each year, falling in a flurry of white and pink confetti-like petals when wind or rain hit hard enough. Enjoy every moment of beauty and joy that comes your way. Keep putting one foot forward!
            This week’s Hike Notes from the archives, Japanese Tea Garden Stroll, takes readers to the Japanese gardens in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which is especially pretty when the cherry trees blossom in spring. 
 
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This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives:
Hike Notes 56: Japanese Tea Garden Stroll