Cherry blossom
Today’s spring excitement: cherry blossom coming into bloom. I can’t remember (of course) what variety this cherry is, but we planted it about five years ago and the blossom is an annual treat.
I don’t even mind grey skies when there’s cherry blossom to see against it. Pale pink and pale grey make one of my favourite colour combinations, anyway. (That preference dates from reading ‘What Katy Did’ as a girl: I seem to recall that Katy’s sister, Clover, once wore a dove grey frock with a pale pink sash. I was entranced. All my drawings of party dresses, for months, were coloured grey and pink.)
Even the bark of cherry trees is beautiful, full of texture and colour, shiny dark red with roughened off-white.
The beauty of the cherry trees is a welcome distraction from more morbid thoughts at the moment. As the first anniversary of my head injury approaches, I find I have been dwelling on it a good deal, and on the symptoms that persist. (Strictly speaking it was a brain injury: my bonce was fine, protected by my snowboarding helmet.) Perhaps I will manage to write a bit more about that soon. For the moment, the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossom is a reminder (though how could we forget) of Japan, where there are people in unimaginably worse situations; and a reminder that spring comes nonetheless, with its careless grace.
There is a post about May’s apple and pear blossom at Seeing this, who could blame Eve?
Dancing Beastie 
Having recently read your account of your injury, I am startled by how very similar your symptoms are to some of mine post-stroke. The effects of brain injury are so weird – (and weirdly elusive / difficult to pin down) – and this makes them all the harder to explain to people – medical professionals included. I was appalled to read about your immediate after care after the accident, and am not surprised it is on your mind as the anniversary approaches. I find that thinking these things through is necessary and productive – not morbid – so I hope you are allowing yourself some quiet time and space this week, and enjoying the Spring weather.
Thanks for visiting, Kate, and for your generous comments. Although your injury was different from, and more serious than, mine, your descriptions of it all have been consistently reassuring to me in a strange way. I suppose because there is indeed a good deal of common ground, and so reading about your journey helped me to feel less lonely on mine. I finally had a meeting with our local branch of Headway last week, by the way, and found their experience and empathy very helpful.
Small boys don’t allow for much quiet time and space, I have to say! But they and the Spring weather are certainly a solace. Hope you are managing to get out and about in it too.
Thank you so much for brightening up my day with your lovely cherry blossom pics! Absolutely beautiful and perfect for early Spring 🙂
It’s my great pleasure – glad you like them!
Such beautiful pictures! Is this an ornamental or edible cherry?
I have always fancied visiting Japan in cherry blossom time, I imagine it’s quite spectacular.
It is purely ornamental – but we love it anyway. Yes, cherry blossom en masse must be sublime.
Being outside is remedy for both body and soul. And blogging – along with the associated technology and photo shoots are great brain exercises. So sorry about your accident. The beauty you seek and share – in ordinary things – is greatly appreciated – and remarkable. thanks for the effort
Thank you so much for your kind words. You are so right about getting out and about, and also about blogging – I hadn’t thought of that.
Wonderful photos! I’m always sad to be missing the cherry blossom at our little cottage in Normandy, though we enjoy the cherries themselves each summer.
I’ve just read your post about your head injury. What a terrible experience for you and how wrong that you went without the proper treatment for so long. I’m glad you feel you are now recovering. One of my sisters did some volunteering with Headway and was very impressed by the work they do.
Thank you. Headway do a terrific job, I think, and fill a gaping hole in the care of brain-injured people.
Anniversaries like yours can be difficult, especially when there are persistent symptoms. It is frustrating to have an open timeline for “normal” to return. For all of us the seasons are a timeline, reminding us of other years and other circumstances. Spring always seems to hold some optimism. Ours is delayed again today, with more gray sky and sleet. The leaves and blooms are “on hold” a little longer.
Wise words! I hope your spring isn’t on hold much longer…
Stunning cherry blossom and, yes, a welcome distraction from the anniversary (can hardly believe that it is almost a year). However hard we try to ignore these highly charged dates, they do hover in the conscious and sub-conscious, don’t they? I was very glad to hear that you are in touch with Headway.
I’m trying not to think too much about my forthcoming ‘anniversary’ this summer and the first bout of annual monitoring that runs for five years . . .
Yes, indeed. These dates are arbitrary, of course, and shouldn’t matter – but they do. I passed the anniversary this week, so am trying to look forwards now. I spent the day celebrating (a couple of days late) my birthday, which was the perfect distraction, and made me feel very lucky to be still here with my family.