Our local trees timed it well. In the short gap between gales/rain and frosty mornings, they very quickly produced copious blossom. Now the breeze is picking up again, and the blossom is redecorating the paths!
There is some uncertainty about the tree: it could be a “bird cherry” or a Chinese crabapple. If you know, please tell me. The blossom season is short but sweet. Discarded pink/purple petals flutter down and the breeze is now making up patterns. Grass bordering the pathway now has formed its own art form; it’s like confetti. Spring and tree have married, and are working on the next generation. Doesn’t the bright colour improve the boring tarmac and grass?
Blossom attracts bees. The tree was covered in a “Buzziness of Bees” trying to upload all the nectar (and pollinate the flowers) in the few short days of the season. In return for their bee labour, fruit will be prepared. This crop is ornamental as far as humans are concerned- but birds and small mammals will scoff the fruit in the autumn.
Real life is messy. Petals will be trampled on, or blown indoors, and the remnants will go all soggy in the rain when April invites its showers. Would we be better off without the fuss? My heart says NO. Beauty restores us, mind, body, and soul. Even if nature isn’t regimented. Throughout the Bible, beauty is valued and honoured. Here are three verses to contemplate:
“The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.” – Song of Solomon 2:12
“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose.” – Isaiah 35:1
“And why take thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” – Matthew 6:28-29
The Reflectionary 