Sunday Scenes on Monday

“How can we ever lose interest in life? Spring has come again And cherry trees bloom in the mountains.” -Ryokan

First Day of Spring-2016!

Look at the cherry blossoms!
Their color and scent fall with them.
Are gone forever, yet mindless.
The spring comes again. -Ikkyu

The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also. Harriet -Ann Jacobs

Sorry for the update…I forgot to include the author’s name in the poem.

Sunday Scenes: April 26, 2015

Blossoms and bees-unbeknownst to me, there was a bee within the folds of two of the cherry blossom photographs, below. I was surprised to see them when I uploaded them.

When the flower blossoms, the bee will come. -Srikumar Rao

Joy comes from places you least expect it. It’s usually the simple things, like watching my son play basketball or going through Central Park when the blossoms are blooming. -Dave Gahan

The significance of the cherry blossom tree in Japanese culture goes back hundreds of years. In their country, the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It’s a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it is also tragically short.
-Homaro Cantu

Pinkness, Lake, Ancient Japanese Poems

Everyone feels grief
when cherry blossoms scatter.
Might they then be tears –
those drops of moisture falling
in the gentle rains of spring?

Otomo no Juronushi (late 9th century)

The pathway I marked
when last year I made my way
into Yoshino –
I abandon now to visit
blossoms I have not yet seen.

Monk Saigyo (1118-1190)

Shabbat Shalom!

Sunday Scenes on Tuesday

I walked along the lake, Sunday, and I took some photos of the cherry trees.

A few of the trees are in full bloom, as the capture above shows two that are.

Some of the trees are still trying to illuminate the scene with about 25-35%, or more, of their blossoms still closed.

It was a beautiful day for walking within nature, soaking in the sun’s rays, and looking at the beautiful pinkness of the blossoms and the blueness of the lake.

Blossom Beginnings

Minute amounts of dainty pink blossoms are beginning to appear on the cherry trees at the lake. A dot here, a dab there, I relish their beauty, no matter how few blossoms there are. Blossom beginnings make me smile. In another week or two there will be more, and then the trees will be in full bloom. I love this time of year while walking at the lake, peering at the trees beginning their spring renewal. It is especially wonderful to see the blossoms as they become a massive blur of pinkness when they are at their peak.

The photos above were taken the other morning.