The UW Quad hosts 29 Yoshino cherry Trees estimated to be around 90 years old. They appear older than that. Their trunks are gnarled and draped with moss and licorice fern as one would expect of trees planted and nurtured at the edge of a temperate rain forest. The One would think It would be a simple series of mapping out the historical events that explain how they got there. But history is seldom a straight line, eh? It has long believed that the trees were purchased in 1939 for $1.25 each and planted in the Washington Park Arboretum. There is more to that history. The trees were actually planted around 1936… by the Works Progress Administration under the tutelage of then President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was the time of the “New Deal” during the “Great Depression”. In 1962 the trees were moved to their current location: Liberal Arts Quad where they now reside and display the arrival of spring with reckless abandon.
“Enough of that” she says. “Get on with it… I was there. I saw. I mingled with the throngs observing the bloom.”
She, of course, is… Bliss The newest addition to our wandering tribe:
It all begins with a few blooms surrounded by licorice ferns on a mossy bough…
And then… follow-up growth commences:
It’s not necessarily a reckless abandon form of development.,.. but close to it:
In the Northwest the daffodils are blooming. Days are getting longer. The spring rains are here, but they are warmer than winter rains. The Crows, Pidgeons, Great Blue Herons Cormorants and Canadian Geese are still here, but there are fewer geese. The Surf Scoters, Northern Widgeons, Grebes, and Loons have moved on and are making their way towards their spring and summer locals.
That means the Purple Martens will be back along with the swallows. Spring is definitely in full swing.
Salish Sea Cruising With Blair, Les, Leo, and Bliss 