3 in 30 - 2002.03.23 Saturday
These cherry trees in the small park near our house are among the hundreds of thousands in the Kanto area that are blooming two weeks earlier than usual. In all of the time that records have been kept on the date that the trees have bloomed, this is the earliest. The warm winter, the early cherry blossom season are being attributed to global warming.
Still, the cherry trees herald the arrival of spring. Earlier this March, the atmospheric haze was building up and we could tell that we would no longer be able to see the peak of Mount Fuji on a regular basis. During the winter when the air is dry, we can see the peak nearly every day.
As the humidity rises, it begins to rain occasionally and during the cherry blossom season, the sky is nearly always grey. This continues until the rainy season begins around the first of June. There are no early predictions about the start of the rainy season yet.
Incidentally, this is the park where the Haijima community group holds the summer festival in August. (Aug '00 and Aug '01)
Closer to the train station, at the corner with a traffic light, is this cherry tree in full bloom, which has withstood the passage of time. With all the construction, demolition, and reconstruction, this tree has stood in the same place for many years. The trunk is gnarled and stocky with a circumference too large for me to reach around. I might guess that it has passed it normal life span, but continues to be nurtured.
My guess it that it is probably over 50 years old. That it hasn't been replaced with a convenience store at the corner is testimony to the care given to the beauty of this tree which is only displayed for a short week to ten days once a year.
Many is the time I have walked by this tree throughout the year and thought about how is appears during this season.
Painting the queen's roses
At the end of winter, many varieties of camellia (tsubaki) are blooming. This variety has double or treble the number of petals than the one in our yard, which makes resemble a rose flower.
In Disney’s film version of Alice in Wonderland, I believe it was this camellia that the Queen of Hearts was calling a rose bush where she wanted the flowers painted red.
Here you see hard little buds, fresh, full pink blossoms, faded white blossoms, and crumpled old blossoms, turning orange and beginning to rot. I am wondering how many of these trees, plants, and flowers will grow in Colorado.
Spring also means Saito-san's birthday.