Early Hanami 早めの花見

We presently have four cherry trees in our backyard; 3 Japanese style trees and one native choke cherry tree. (The choke cherry tree blooms in late spring with lovely veils of white flowers). There was already one mature cherry tree on the property when we moved in over 30 years ago but we planted two additional cherry trees, so we could have spectacular Hanami celebrations in our own yard. While they provided beautiful flowers and shade for many years neither of them survive today. One never did well and remained stunted for the 20 years of its life. While doing some construction in 2010 we discovered the reason. The poor thing was planted over a giant cement jersey wall such as those used to block traffic on a highway. Unbeknownst to us, and to our utter surprise and horror, the builders had used objects such as that as land fill in our backyard. The poor tree had nowhere to plant its feet so it could thrive. After seeing its circumstances we were amazed it even survived as long as it did. The other cherry tree was more fortunate. We apparently planted it in a more favorable spot and it did very well. It formed a large canopy over our deck and was our main cherry tree for hanami but, it reached its demise in 2018 at the hands of a severe Nor’easter wind. So in the face of this cherry tree devastation, we planted a new cherry tree to replace it. This tree is getting taller but does not yet quite match the grandeur of the destroyed old tree it replaced. Meanwhile, 30 some years ago soon after we moved into the house, I was cleaning out a patch of our backyard heavily overgrown with weeds and thick vines when I came across tiny twig of a tree and recognized it was a very young very small volunteer (i.e. not planted but rooted naturally) cherry tree.  I carefully saved it and nurtured it. Now it is over 2 stories tall. (Shown in the pictures below.)  This cherry tree is perfectly positioned to get full sun in the morning and full sun in the evening this time of year. As a result, it is the first of our cherry trees to bloom in the spring. This year spring came early and this cherry tree is in full bloom in Mid March. To celebrate, we had an early Hanami. Because of the location of the tree, it is most visible from the one of the rooms on the second floor. So despite the cold weather and strong winds of the last few days, we were still able enjoy an early Hanami in the comfort of the warm house. 

We will post more details later but we had five dishes for our early Hanami. Three were made from some newly acquired edible lily bulbs, as well as dishes of edible chrysanthemum and lotus root. Luckily daylight saving time kicked in just last Sunday, so sunset comes later than before increasing the time we have to enjoy the cherry blossoms. Even at sunset, however, the cherry blossoms characteristically glow in the ambient light which is always beautiful to see.