FLOWERS OFF THE GARDEN 2

The so-called 'sakura-zensen' or sakura-front is advancing towards north Japan...

Where I live, the petals have almost all fallen off at this point in time...

What's left are some sweet memories and some images taken of the 2007 spring blooms...


This pic of the 'jewel' was taken from a low angle... the previous pic was bit too dark... so, this is sort of a 'revenge' pic...


Yours truly taking a break from working the soil... as can be observed, the sakura tree trunk is quite immense... woaaahh...


Another angle of the same 'jewel'... taken in the early morning hours when the sun was just beginning to smile... at the background are terraced padi fields... they look pretty in any season...


These are yama-zakuras... hill or wild sakuras, if you like... pic was taken from the newly-built sun-deck... I could lay for hours, just gazing at these glorious hillsides...


The house with the red-tiled roof... pic taken from high up the hill slopes... sakuras at foreground are wild ones while the partially hidden 'jewel' is just to the right side of the house...

FLOWERS OFF THE GARDEN

Spring is such a lovely time to be in the garden...

Besides rolling on the soil and making a mess out of myself, I sometimes take time off for some little pleasures in talking to the flowers...


This is a close up of Oshima Sakura... the tree is like a large bonsai sitting in my garden... its fruits are like black cherries... taste kind of bitter sweet... and the color of the juice is deep purple...


We gaze at this lovely Shidare Sakura tree each morning when we have breakfast... little robins and nightingales come around to suck nectar off the flowers... characteristic of the shidare is its willowy flowers...


These are peach flowers... we only get to enjoy the flowers but not the fruits as they need at least two trees to cross-pollinate... may look for Ms. Peach to pair up with this guy...


These flowers come from a pear seedling that we just bought... obviously we will not get to see any fruit as the other pear seedling came flowerless... maybe we can sink our fangs into the fruits in three years' time (alreadea counting my chickens)...


This specimen comes from the Somei-Yoshino Sakura tree a.k.a. the 'jewel in the crown' of my garden... may be wrong, but this specie is perhaps the most common sakura specie in all Japan... more pics of this jewel in next post...