[BRIEF NOTE] On the blessed impending arrival of cherry blossoms in Toronto

[rfmcdonald]

Erin Kelly's "pink & blue II", depicting the cherry blossoms of Washington D.C. on 16th Street, NW, is my favourite photo of the images collected by the Washington Post's Angela Fritz. Energetically pink, they reach up into the sky.

I'm looking forward to cherry blossoms more than I ever have before. My links post Friday about how the Japanese are enthusiastically welcoming their country's cherry blossoms, in person and online and with hope and with tourists, even, might have given my enthusiasm away. My happiness at reading Fritz' Washington Post article and seeing pictures like Kelly's confirmed it for me. I am looking forward to going out to High Park, as in previous years, and to join the crowds strolling.



I'm even looking forward to catching the careful rows of blossoms at the foot of the University of Toronto's Robards Library.



It has been a hard winter, for me and for others, here in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada. (I think particularly of my friends and family on besnowed Prince Edward Island.) Things have felt monochromatic, looked monochromatic. These days, the hours of light are longer and brighter, and the cold is lifting, but I want colour. This year, these cherry blossoms will be it.

Their progress is being tracked at the High Park Nature Centre. "We are currently predicting peak bloom 2015 will be around May 7-9th."

Shall we make it a date?