Cheery cherry blossoms
dor’s wife), planted two Yoshino cherry trees along the Tidal Basin, paving the way for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Workers continued planting the remaining trees around the Tidal Basin from 1913 to 1920; today it is a major tourist attraction.
On the day we went to see the trees, traffic was choc-a-bloc, with tour buses parked along the length of the roads leading up to the Tidal Basin. Large groups of people wearing uniform t-shirts representing foundations as well as special interest and school groups, tourists and families (complete with babies in prams) were there in full force and high spirits.
Whether armed with zoom lenses or selfie sticks, everyone jostled for that perfect shot of the blossoms against the blue sky or with one of the memorials in the background or just of themselves amongst the many low-hanging sprays.
On a normal day, one can actually walk right round the basin. On this day, that was impossible. In fact, my husband and I eventually gave up walking on the designated walkway and instead threaded our way through the trees – which turned out to be infinitely more pleasurable as we could see the blooms up close and smell them.
Many also took the opportunity to picnic under the trees, although they had to put up with people milling around them. I took countless pictures myself and even returned to the area the following couple of days to admire the blooms.
On the day I wrote this piece, it rained. I checked the online “bloom watch” and there were pictures posted of cherry blossom petals carpeting the grounds. It was sad to see, given that just a few days earlier they had been the objects of much admiration.
Yet, they also serve to remind us how we should savour nature’s moments and lifecycles through the four seasons, which in my view, is a privilege to experience.
The blooms may be gone for this year, but for as long as they were there, the cherry blossoms certainly gave us much cheer.