Cherry blossoms

My trip to the fabric store was too exciting for me and I ended up in the bed for the rest of Friday and all of Saturday!  Actually, I just caught a cold and was holding it at bay during the fabric store trip finally crashing when I got back home. 

So...  Cherry blossoms...

Cherry blossom viewing is practically a religious rite in Japan.  The past month has brought daily weather reports announcing the beginning of the cherry blossom season (the meteorological agency makes the announcement when four or five blossoms are sited).  Just like daily weather maps forecasting rain, the television lets us all know how far the cherry blossom front has advanced northwards and when will be the best days for viewing.  Schools plan their entrance ceremonies to coincide with the flowering of the sakura trees planted around the school grounds (and ALL schools have sakura trees) and it is all very photogenic for new students to pose in front of the cherry blossoms.

Thursday afternoon I was out walking Choco when a farmer neighbor stopped his car to say hello and I noticed him all spiffed up and his wife in a beautiful soft pink kimono.

"Grandchild entering school today?"

"No.  We just got dressed up to go view the cherry blossoms at the nearby elementary school."

I thought it quaint that they would get dressed up in kimono even and make a day of cherry blossom viewing.

It is not like there aren't cherry blossoms EVERYWHERE around us in this season.  The street in front of us has five or six cherry blossom trees.  My neighborhood was once called Cherry Blossom Heights until so many of the sakura trees were cut down and they changed the name to North Town...  I loved being able to say I lived in Cherry Blossom Heights...  North Town doesn't have much of a ring to it...

But sakura trees only live 50 years or so unless they are well cared for, and they are easily infected by parasites.  The branches break easily and the leaves become infested with bugs and worms so that though people love the cherry blossoms, the rest of the year the trees are a bit of a mess...

Another reason there is almost a religious worshiping of cherry blossoms is because of the short blooming season.  Cherry blossoms represent the fragility of life and though they may be beautiful, they disappear quickly.  Cherry blossoms bloom and a week later they are gone.  If it is windy or there is a rainfall, then the life of the cherry blossom is even shorter, and given that if a weekend gets rained out then the actual days to go view the cherry blossoms are very few and dear.  Tetsu had already been planning about WHEN we would go cherry blossom viewing and he even took a half day off for us to go to the same local school as my farmer neighbor and his kimono clad wife.  I wore jeans that day.

Of course there are many different species of cherry blossoms.  The famous tree in the school yard is a weeping cherry tree and it is has a slight pink tinge to its blossoms.

The tree here is a off shoot of another tree in the area and together they are about 450 years old... There is even a donation box in front of the tree with funds being used for its upkeep.

The school itself has a very pretty stained glass window in its front entryway depicting the cherry blossom trees surrounding it.

The neighboring houses also have trees from the same original tree.

The small school itself with wild cherry trees up on the hills.

This was a different cherry blossom tree on the school grounds with blossoms all in a cluster.

I didn't realize I'd captured this photo of the bird until he flew out of the camera frame.

As I say, cherry blossoms are short lived and I doubt I'm going to get out to picnic under the flowers this spring...