My colleague - a keen gardener - came back to work after lunch the other day, enthusing about this tree in Shipley's market square. He was so lavish in his praise that I just had to make a detour on my way home to have a look - and photograph it of course. He was right in saying that it is absolutely laden with blossom - so much so that it reminds me of one of those sticks of pink candyfloss you can buy at funfairs. Isn't it glorious to have this exuberance of natural beauty right in the middle of the shopping centre (an urban desert if ever I saw one)?
With the storm clouds overhead, it might be only a matter of days before the blossom is dashed to the ground with wind and rain, but here it is captured, a lovely reminder of how spring-life suddenly bursts forth from winter. Maybe gardeners would correct me, but it seems a bit counter-intuitive to me that after a long and harsh winter we should have blossom earlier than usual and in such abundance. Still, I'm enjoying it.
Absolutely spot-on with the title you gave this glorious photograph, Jenny! That soft pink against that sky...perfect...and, yes, you've ceratinly captured a fleeting moment of beauty to be enjoyed for a long, long time after it's disappeared!
ReplyDeleteYour friend was right Jenny.
ReplyDeleteOne has only to lay his eyes on this beautiful blooming tree.. to make his day.
Have a great weekend.
Costas
What a beautiful Pink Candyfloss you gave us to enjoy to start a spring day, Jenny! It is absolutely lovely.
ReplyDeleteIn Japan people have a long long tradition to go out pick-nick and drink under these cherry blossom trees to appreciate these fragile but so beautiful flowers, thinking 'this year too, we ve managed to enjoy this season...'... but I've never thought about a candyfloss! Well now each time it will remind me of this particular tree in the middle of Shipley!
Have a nice week-end. Sachiko
I adore cherry blossom trees, their transient nature makes them all the more precious. And Shipley Market Square - a legacy of 60s dumbing down at its worst can certainly use any help it gets.
ReplyDeleteWell thank you for the detour, it is almost too beautiful to be true.
ReplyDeleteTotally magnificent! You are right, Jenny, those cherry blossoms could be beaten to the ground by some nasty weather soon so I am SO glad your colleague enthused and you went to see it yourself... with your trusty camera! That reminds me that I should go out for a walk to check out the blossoms here, although the sky is gloomy and I can't even hope for such a marvelous sight!
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful. I'm going to DC this month and the cherry blossoms are in bloom there now. So I'm excited about that. Plus a few zillion other things to see back there.
ReplyDeleteOh, lovely... We're still at the stage where one doesn't believe it will ever happen again.
ReplyDeleteWhat a superb tree. It looks like a very mature one, and it obviously has been very well tended to flower so abundantly. It was well worth your detour, Jenny.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you took time to picture it.So glorious!
ReplyDeleteThat's beautiful! Nice to have spotters out looking for good finds for you!
ReplyDeleteGood timing! I wonder how old that tree is, maybe 30 years!
ReplyDeleteI love cherry blossom time. There's nothing prettier than a cherry blossom in full bloom.
ReplyDeleteOh, what a gorgeous tree! Jenny, I'm not at all an expert gardener, but here's an idea to try on for size. After a severely cold winter here, the juniper trees have been producing 100's of times their normal pollen count, and biologists are speculating that the trees have essentially "panicked" and are trying to reproduce extra fast, in case they don't get another chance!
ReplyDeleteHow very very beautiful .We still have lots of snow to melt here in Canada.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the blossom is earlier this year. This is a gorgeous display; sheer exuberance brightening up a rather ordinary shopping area. I'm glad they had the foresight to build round it rather than to cut it down.
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how early your Spring is. So glad you are enjoying it! ~Lili
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