Monday 21st April 2025, 5.55pm (day 4,988)
There’s no other word that could possibly describe this so aptly. The blossoms everywhere seem to be doing very well this year and pink, they certainly are.
Pink!
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: blossom
Plum blossom
Tuesday 2nd April 2024, 2.00pm (day 4,604)
I forget exactly how much our plum tree produced last year but it was at least 20kg (or more than 44 pounds): its all-time record for a single harvest. It won’t do this again in 2024, simply because it never does have two glut years in a row. But the blossom’s out, at least.
The first blossom (and Turing)
Wednesday 14th February 2024, 3.25pm (day 4,556)
Definitely the first full cherry blossom sighting of the year, sprouting in the nicely sheltered urban heat reservoir that is Sackville Gardens, Manchester. Dr. Turing’s statue looks rather content to be there, as it usually does.
Blossom season
Sunday 30th April 2023, 3.00pm (day 4,266)
I guess Spring is trying, a bit, and the blossom at the bottom of Keighley Road in town usually makes for a fine display at this time of year. With this being the first of three three-day holiday weekends coming up in May, there was also a general sense of relaxation about the day.
Lilac, in Manchester
Thursday 13th April 2023, 8.50am (day 4,249)
There are some signs of spring, at least. Whether these trees are actually one of the various species known as ‘lilac’ (genus Syringa) I know not for sure, but they certainly can lay claim to the colour. Behind them, the Town Hall gets on with its decade-long restoration.
Sackville Street Gardens, Manchester
Friday 17th February 2023, 2.00pm (day 4,194)
Chosen as much because this was the year’s first outbreak of cherry blossom — at least, in my sight. The position of the photographer on this shot was carefully chosen — Alan Turing’s statue is visible, the litter bin is artfully concealed.
Evening blossom
Sunday 17th April 2022, 8.35pm (day 3,888)
The cherry blossom in the courtyard at work had been and gone six weeks ago, but the more exposed trees outside the White Lion in Hebden Bridge require more lead-in time to reach full flower. Still, here they are — in time to make the place look good for the Easter daytrippers.
The first blossom
Friday 11th February 2022, 10.40am (day 3,823)
Somewhat continuing a theme from yesterday, but hey. Definitively, the first blossom I’ve seen of the year turns up in the courtyard of the Ellen Wilkinson Building, as it has done before (it’s a finely sheltered spot).
Blossoming, unseen
Wednesday 24th March 2021, 1.30pm (day 3,499)
There may be a few people, other than me, working in the Ellen Wilkinson Building at this time. There are occasional noises, dimly perceived, as if made by spirits. Shadowy presences in stairwells. But seeing as even in normal times I was usually the only one who ventured out into the hidden courtyard, the annual cherry blossom display is even more personal than usual, this year. We both greeted a warm, early spring day — alone.
Sakura
Wednesday 15th April 2020, 9.30am (day 3,156)
It is three years and a bit, or more precisely, 1,112 days, since I went to Japan and commented on that nation’s obsessive interest in cherry blossom, which they call sakura. It is certainly a sign of full spring, and so ephemeral that I wonder if the Japanese are getting their spiritual money’s worth from the sakura in this rather odd springtime. I will at least report that Hebden’s own cherry/cheery trees are in full blossom right now.
Being 42 