Entering the Month of May

 

Above, my photo calendar picture for the month of May (photo from mid April, 2025).

As we enter the month of May this year, there are also still cherry blossom trees in bloom.

On Friday 1st May (Labour Day and a holiday) I did not go very far, but just went for a stroll around the estate where I live. Even so, I caught quite a few "signs of spring":

 Narcissi, grapehyacinths and dandelions together in one flowerbed. (I'm guessing the dandelions weren't planted, but I quite like them in the mix...)

 

A single tulip next to a park bench where I sat down for a while.

 Cherry blossom in the playground park. 

 

On Saturday 2nd May, I took a bus into town and after my errands there walked back home through the city park and along the river.

 Chestnut trees unfolding their leaves.

The main square with the old Town Hall in the background, and fountain in the foreground. The Town Hall was built in 1910, and as the district court has just moved out of there to new premises, it's now under discussion what it's going to be used for instead. 

The fountain has images reflecting the town's history of textile industry.

The round building in the park is a restaurant/café.

 Yellow flowerbed along the river in the park.

The Green Rabbit, one of my favourite sculptures. It's official name is Mate Hunting, and its eyes keep moving (only a little each day) so that they're never quite in the exact same position as last time you passed by... Artist: Marianne Lindberg de Geer.

 

It was a summery kind of day, and people were even sunbathing along the river...

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections  (More "street" than reflections this time!)

Maple Blossom, Dandelions & More

 

First impression of these trees from afar may be that they it's their leaves that are unfolding already. Getting up closer, though, it becomes clear that it's not leaves, but blossoms:
 

And as I know these trees from other seasons as well, I know they are maples. (They grow in the old cemetery where I walk all year round.)  

Unlike the trimmed forsythia hedges I see from home, some private gardens have forsythias that have been allowed to grow as tall as they please. 

 

In the garden facing the main street, the same house has an impressive cherry blossom tree.
 

It's also dandelion time, and those can turn up almost anywhere!

"I mustn't forget, I'm alive, I know I'm alive, 
I mustn't forget it tonight or tomorrow or the day after that."

Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 

 I've mentioned (and quoted from) this book before, it's an old favourite of mine - and tends to come to mind for me when I see the first dandelions appearing in spring.

It's set in 1928, in a small town in Illinois, and inspired by the author's own childhood memories. "A magical timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding" . The title, Dandelion Wine, refers to the idea (or wish) of bottling memories just like home-made wine.  Each chapter is like a short story in itself, with Douglas sometimes the main character and sometimes just witness of events. I think I have it as audio book as well as in print, maybe time to re-listen again...!

More Cherry Blossom

 

 

 

After having seen the trees in the city centre in bloom on Thursday, on Friday I went to check on a little park in a different direction from where I live, where there are still a few very old cherry blossom trees left at one end, while a few years ago they cut down some others that were looking very tired, and replaced those with new small ones. I only took photos of the remaining old ones now, as the small new ones, planted rather far apart, weren't even really in bloom yet. (There are many kinds of cherry blossom trees and some come into bloom later than others.)

 

 

 

 

Cherry Blossom and Magnolia

 

Today I managed to combine a pharmacy errand with a sunny walk + checking up on the progress of spring in the city centre. The first blossoming tree that I've seen this spring caught my eye outside a hotel I passed on my way into town (above). After my errands, I took the way through the city park and along the river towards home.

 Magnolia tree, and flowerbed with hyaciths in the foreground. 
(The round black building in the background is a restaurant/café.)

If memory serves me right, the big tree to the left is a maple tree.

More cherry blossom at a parking lot by the river.

 

A cherry blossom, or sakura, is a flower of Japanese cherry trees. (The cherry fruit is from a different species of tree.) Most of the flowers are white or pink with five petals. There are about 400 different types of cherry trees.

Magnolia is a genus of at least 210 species, or more; named after a French botanist, Pierre Magnol. They existed before bees, so are believed to originally having been pollinated by beetles. Fossilized specimens of magnolia have been dated to 20 million (!) years ago.

(Facts picked from Wikipedia articles.) 

Second Round of Cherry Blossom Beauty

We've had chilly winds blowing again yesterday; and this morning when I got up I noticed we had also had rain during the night - and more of the same was predicted for the late afternoon. After lunch the sun was showing its face between the clouds again for a while, though, so I decided I'd probably manage a walk to the park downtown and back (about an hour). I did bring an umbrella, but I did not need it. I was back home again well before the forecasted rain hit my windows.

Instead I was abundantly awarded for my effort by finding the late-blooming cherry blossom trees in the park at their most gorgeous. And I was far from the only one spending quite a while there on this Saturday afternoon, trying to take in the overwhelming beauty - and also catch it on camera.  

This is my favourite among the photos that I took! (Cropped/enlarged version below.) Those children seemed quite taken with the abundance of beauty, too!

Linking to

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Street/Reflections

Cherry Blossom Time

 

After having seen the first cherry blossom tree in bloom in the city centre on Friday, the next day I decided it was probably also time to go and check on the ones in a little park in my own part of town - some ten minutes walk in another direction from where I live. 

This little park used to be all surrounded by old cherry blossom trees, but it has been rather evident in later years that not all of them were faring well. Now I found that several of them had been replaced by new, small, young ones (which were not in bloom yet, and I did not get any photos of them). But luckily they left two or three of the big old trees at one end of the park, and those are still doing their best to prove that they're not "past it" just yet! 

"The beauty of cherry blossoms
lies in their impermanence,

a fleeting moment of grace." 

~ ~ ~

"Cherry blossoms are a reminder that
life is beautiful, even in its brevity." 

Linking to  Mersad's Through My Lens