It's hard to believe we have lived here for almost four years, and I spent my childhood coming to this area several times a year and neither of us has been to the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC!
Well, I am lucky enough to work in the nation's capital and after work, decided to take advantage of the beautiful 80 degree weather and take a walk, several miles down the road to the tidal basin in DC to check out the blooms! It was what the arborists and horticuluralists called the "peak bloom day", the day in which about 70% of all blooms are out, and after that day begin to lose their petals.
(I personally love when they lose their petals because it looks like a snow flurry! Oh yeah, and also that summer is just around the corner!)
Our weather here in the DC region has felt unseasonably warm...I can not remember an Easter where we set the outside table on the porch for the ham dinner! We are loving this!
Here is a little history of the Cherry Blossoms in DC for those who might not know about it:
"The National Cherry Blossom Festival® annually commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, honoring the lasting friendship between the United States and Japan and celebrating the continued close relationship between our two cultures.
In a simple ceremony on March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two trees from Japan on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park. In 1915, the United States Government reciprocated with a gift of flowering dogwood trees to the people of Japan. A group of American school children reenacted the initial planting in 1927 and the first "festival” was held in 1935, sponsored by civic groups in the Nation’s Capital.
First Lady Lady Bird Johnson accepted 3,800 more trees in 1965. In 1981, the cycle of giving came full circle. Japanese horticulturists were given cuttings from our trees to replace some cherry trees in Japan which had been destroyed in a flood.
The Festival was expanded to two weeks in 1994 to accommodate a diverse activity schedule during the trees’ blooming. Today, more than a million people visit Washington, DC each year to admire the blossoming cherry trees and attend events that herald the beginning of spring in the Nation’s Capital." (From the NCBF website)
Here are some pictures of the Cherry Blossom Festival that I took (with my camera phone)
Happy Easter Weekend, everyone!
-Bre
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