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At last the spring blossom is here. Our apple trees (top) have begun to flower this week. They’re much later than last year. There has been less sunshine than usual, and more rainy days, so it’s not much wonder that the buds on the fruit trees haven’t been keen to open.
(In case you think I’m unhappy about the wet weather, I can assure you that I’m not. That’s because the extra rain will be a blessing if temperatures begin to rise the way they did last year. Excess heat and drought may become a problem here.)
It was still rather grey and breezy when I remembered to photograph the blossom on our very young pear tree. (It had it’s first fruit last year.) I was a bit worried that the blossom might get blown away if the winds persisted, but things calmed down and the blossom survived (photo below). It’s too early to expect more than one or two pears this year, but it was good to be at least able to enjoy the blossom.
Some stronger sun in recent days has now also brought the Morello cherry (bottom photo) into flower and I was even lucky enough to have a bright blue sky for a background. Whether I’ll be able to pick many of the eventual cherries before the blackbirds descend on them is another matter. I do hope they leave me some!
The flowering cherry in our front garden (‘Kanzan’ – a very pretty pink) is flowering surprisingly well this year, given that it has looked sickly for a couple of years. Eventually it may give up the ghost, so I really ought to go and pick a few twigs of flowers so that I can photograph them indoors. (They’re too difficult to get close to otherwise.) And then there’s the lovely deep pink crab apple out on the green in front of us. It is loaded with blossom this year. I think I need to go and get my camera…
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
I like your tight framing of those pear blossoms.
Central Texas is with you in giving thanks for recent rain. Both places run the risk of summer drought.
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Thanks Steve! It wasn’t a great day for photography – so dull – but I needed to try to take some photos before the flowers fell. Here’s hoping we both get enough rain in our areas to cope with summer!
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The red anthers on the pear blossoms certainly provide a nice accent. I smiled at your mention of a ‘dull day’ for photographing. I’ve increasingly found that our cloudless skies and strong sunlight can make things more difficult than they are on a cloudy day. For a variety of reasons, I’m often out trying to photograph between 10 and 4, rather than the early mornings/late afternoons that are advised. But we learn to cope, and you certainly coped well here.
One of my favorite songs when growing up was evoked by your photos: Perez Prado’s “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White”.
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That touch of red was what appealed to me most about these flowers. It makes them different to the other fruit tree blossoms. I agree that strong sunlight can be a menace when you’re trying to photograph something and you’re trying to avoid the highlights being washed out. We need enough light to give a bit of life to our images but not too much contrast – fussy, aren’t we, hehe! Although I may well have heard that piece of music before, I had no idea of the name. 🙂
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Ah, blossom definitely says spring is here. I love blossom, but don’t actually have any though there are some cherry trees in the neighbourhood. I used to have a lovely ornamental columnar tree back in Doncaster which fitted perfectly in a corner of the garden. Thanks for sharing your lovely photos Ann.
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Thanks Jude! (My Dad came from Doncaster – small world!) We had one of those columnar cherries back in our garden near Edinburgh – it was lovely. I preferred its single flowers to the double flowers on the ornamental cherry here.
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Oh do take a picture of the crab apple blossom, it sounds spectacular. I have missed spring this year due to working every day for a while. I have walked past the lovely cherry trees in my village though, late on account of the weather.
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It’s raining right now, which is making the petals fall from the tree (aw!) but I already do have a picture of the blossom from that crab apple at the top of this post: https://annmackay.blog/2019/04/28/so-quickly-gone-spring-blossom/ You can see what a lovely dark pink it is in comparison to cherry blossom. It’s sad that the rainy weather is making the blossom disappear so quickly. (And I just found some more crab apple blossom from a different tree here:https://annmackay.blog/2020/04/26/blossom-time/ The flowers from this one are a bit paler.)
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Ah yes, I can see. Gosh, 4 years ago you posted that, as the covid business was getting going. Such a lot happened since then but blossom still endures.
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It feels like a long time, doesn’t it? Covid has taken a lot of our time and disrupted many lives! Thank goodness for nature!
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These are all beautiful. Wishing you many apples, pears, and cherries this year! 🍎🍐🍒
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I just hope there were enough bees around to pollinate them – not seeing as many so far, which is worrying.
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Yes, it is, both for the bees, and for the plants that are dependent on them.
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