blossoms

Cherry blossoms, to be sort of specific (I'll get more into particular types in a moment). And no, I didn't make another trip to D.C.... yet. This is about a lovely gem in New Jersey that I was unaware of until today.

Mom wanted to walk around and look at the cherry blossoms in this park in Newark near Grandma's house like she did when she was a kid. It was warm and sunny out, so she and Grandma and I went while the Easter ham baked.

Branch Brook Park was full of families taking pictures by the last of the cherry blossoms and other blooming trees (dogwoods are starting in New Jersey). It was definitely past peak for the cherries, but some varieties still had their blossoms despite all the rain last week. We had a nice walk along a canal-- I saw a sign for a copper mill up the road in Belleville, but apparently there was also a yeast company too. I'll have to read more about it.

In trying to read more about the mills in the area, I learned that the yeast company management included two of FDR's sons. Mom said if the wind was just right, growing up, it smelled like beer in Bloomfield.

So, obviously everyone associates cherry blossoms with Washington, D.C. but the cherry trees in Newark are apparently also a pretty big deal, and I'm surprised that I had not heard of this before. Things I learned from signs in the park or reading on the website when I got home:

• About 1000 new cherry trees were planted in 2009 to make up for quite a few that had died. Hey, no Jersey jokes-- the same thing happened in D.C., just much earlier.
  
• Branch Brook Park was the first county park in the US.
• The over 4000 Japanese cherry trees are the largest collection of flowering Japanese cherry trees in one location in the US. I'm guessing this is because the collection in D.C. is spread all over the city, not just in one specific park.
  
• This is a Frederick Law Olmsted Park. He's also known for Central Park in NYC and the landscape architecture around the US Capitol in D.C.

Anyway, it was lovely, and next year Mom and I think we'll go closer to the peak of the blossoms. I'd definitely like to walk around more of the park than time allowed us today.



Trees of the day: Cornelian Cherry tree (actually a type of dogwood!), Black cherry tree, Yoshino cherry, Higan cherry... all found in Branch Brook Park. Wikipedia says there are 14 varieties, Branch Brook Park's website says 17, but the vegetation report says 6, one of which is actually a type of dogwood tree. These were the ones I noticed. Hmmm... sounds like I'm going to have a nice walk with my tree book next spring!

Also of note this weekend: I got a ton of sleep to make up for the lack of sleep leading up to my thesis defense on Friday (success-- I passed!). I just have a few revisions on the thesis itself standing between me and my second degree. There were all sorts of metaphors to be had about new life and blossoming and whatnot this weekend. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter!