Loveliest of trees - the cherry

Every year, around the end of March and the beginning of April, cherry trees burst in blossom. In the oriental culture, cherry blossom resembles fragile feminine beauty, and there are many poems appraising the gentleness of the beautiful flowers and also many lamenting on their short life-span (around one week).

Here are some of my favorites:
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The cherry blossom tree
sneezed on the wooden bench below,
covering it in pink pedals,
accenting the snow.
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They blossom, and then we gaze,
and then the blossoms scatter, and then ...
***

My fondness for cherry blossom comes from my memory of the two cherry trees outside of my mom's office. They swayed and swang, just like two pink clouds floating over the window.

I read from a Chinese blog yesterday that 100,000 people swarming to the campus of Wuhan Univeristy in Wuhan, China to admire cherry blossom there. Oh, man, 100,000 people. Not sure they could see more flowers or people.

I'm excited to have found that the campus of the University of Washington is a cherry blossom hotplace in Seattle. Carrying my Nikon super camera on my back, I headed to the UW campus this morning. So glad it's another gorgeous sunny day here in Seattle. Since it's winter break for the school students, I didn't see many people there. Here are some pictures to share.

Cherry blossom in the Quad

More cherry trees

Old couple sitting down the trees

Up-close shot of pink cherry blossom

Up-close shot of white cherry blossom

Pedal the ground

Squirrels peeking at me. Sorry buddy, I didn't bring food for you today.

Lovely kid running under the cherry trees

Enjoy spring!