Quite improbably, we find ourselves a two-car family once again.
Our first experience with “The American Way” came many, many years ago. I replaced my former boy toy, my motorcycle, for a modest sports car after some yahoo knocked me off the bike as he tried to run the yellow light I had stopped for, on account of its imminent turn to red, and the presence of a whole class of preschoolers waiting at the crossing. But, that’s a story from another life, for another time.
We got a surprise about a week ago: our cherry tree began to blossom!
Our long suffering cherry tree (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
We have yet to find references from previous years, but we believe this bloom is considerably earlier than we’ve seen before. The difference: Michelle trimmed the windbreak trees last winter to provide the tree more sunshine.
The poor tree has lived a tough life. Moose commonly browse it in the winter, porcupines used to, before we fenced it to prevent them from doing so. Add to these too little sun, it blooms late and bears poorly.
In the past, we’ve watched enviously as cherry trees around Haines (and there are many) bloom in May. Our tree follows apologetically a few weeks later.
This year, we were still behind the trees in town, but only by a few days. Those few days turned out to be critical. We had a gale blow through recently, which knocked the petals off fruit tree blossoms in the area. Our tree’s blossoms were still just tight enough to hang on to all their petals. That rain (a local record for the day, incidentally) and the ensuing sunshine brought out our bloom beautifully.
Cherry blossom detail (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
Now, pollinators of all shapes and sizes buzz around the tree, visiting the blossoms. We standby, enjoying the view, and beginning to hope for a better cherry harvest this year.
