Sunday, April 5, 2009

A Walk Among the Flowers

Along with the first robin of Spring, D.C. has its own little "Hey-Winter-is-over-it's-time-to-break-out-the-sundresses" signal: the blossoming of almost 4,000 Japanese cherry trees. 

Since I moved to area, I've made it down to the Tidal Basin each year to take in the blooms and snap a picture or two (or 200). I've also learned a lesson or two about when to visit, namely not on the second weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival. A weeknight stroll is a much better choice.

For those of you from out of town, this weekend in D.C. the tourist hoards descended upon our fair capital. In the millions. 

Friday night was a bit blustery with a bit of wind and some overcast, but nothing too terrible. Anyway, here are a couple from my 2009 Cherry Blossom album. Enjoy.

Some of the prettiest blossoms hang right down over the
paths and into the water.

Sunset over the Tidal Basin.

Two of the more famous icons of the District.

When the wind blows, and it was blowing Friday,
it's almost like standing in a sweet smelling blizzard.

A few clouds can't take away from the view.

Finding a break in the clouds, the sun peeked out 
for one last shot before hiding in Rosslyn.

On Saturday, there'd be a line behind this little break 
in blossoms. Friday night I didn't have to wait a second.

Even in black-and-white they're still pretty.

One last shot before the dying of the light.


13 comments:

PQ said...

Gorgeous pix!!! Thanks for sharing.

I have a tree in my backyard so I avoided going into the city with the crowds.

Unknown said...

Such stunning photographs, thank you.

Fearless in Toronto said...

With snow in the forecast for the next two days, these give me hope that spring exists somewhere in the world. *sigh*

FoggyDew said...

PQ - Welcome, welcome. That tree saved you from some vicious crowds. Along with the CBF, there was a Wizards game, a Nats game and a D.C. United game. Metro sucked.

Meghan - (as Elvis) Thank you, thank you very much.

Fearless - Your snow is our rain, so I'm guessing the trees will lose most of their flowers today. So sad. But they'll be back next year. And, hey, with global warming, spring will come earlier and earlier in your neck of the woods.

Malnurtured Snay said...

Beautiful photographs, but the Dylan Thomas reference earned this post five stars.

rachaelgking said...

You truly have a gift, dear. That sunset is amazing.

FoggyDew said...

Snay - I've always wanted to name a son Dyllan Thomas Foggy, but that might be too much of a burden for a man to bear.

LiLu - No where near as amazing as your gifts my Tar Heel friend.

Lemon Gloria said...

Your pictures are so beautiful!

And Dylan Thomas Foggy would be a big name to carry around, but you could always run it by the mother of your child.

FoggyDew said...

Lisa - I was thinking more along the lines of "Is it right to saddle a kid with the name of one of the greatest poets/alcoholics of all time?" But your point has a certain validity.

Fantastic Forrest said...

Great shots. This is the next best thing to being there.

But I'm still jealous you got to experience it in person.

I think *stretches exaggeratedly casually* I'll go look out my window at Mt. Hood.

So there.

FoggyDew said...

Forrest - Thank you. Look on the bright side, at least you don't have a couple hundred thousand tourists swarming your view over the course of a couple of days.

Of course, we don't have to worry about our cherry trees exploding and blowing pyroclastic material through our bedroom windows and burning us down to ash before we can awaken.

Anyway, send a picture of your hill, a change of scenery is always good for the soul.

Fantastic Forrest said...

This is my favorite place to hike around the dangerous, scary volcano: Click this!

We usually do it on Mother's Day, but there's so much snow up there right now, I don't know if the path will be clear.

Here's what it looks like from where I live:
Click this!

FoggyDew said...

Forrest - Beautiful pictures! Esp. the first one. Haven't seen anything like that since I was in Colorado last year. Wonderful.

I was going to make a Pompeii joke, but I'll refrain.