There’s something about flowers that has always intrigued me. Their beauty. Their aroma. The way they are created from basically nothing, serve their gorgeous purpose, and then quietly disappear, only to re-emerge again in their next season. Flowers mark the passage of time on the world’s clock.
That, and their sex organs are proudly, colorfully, elegantly on display. No shame. No excuses. Nothing conservative about the pistil and stamen. When bathed in that scent, designed to do nothing but attract, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer force of nature, the astounding instinct to continue living.
This was the attitude I brought to the glorious blooming of the cherry blossom trees at the University of Washington. I stood in their midst and just inhaled, allowing the pure luxury of being amongst them wash over me.
I wasn’t even bothered by the drone flying overhead, because I knew its footage would be unforgettable, And I was right. Here it is, on Youtube.
Life. What a gift.
Check this out, y’all. I wrote a book! http://amzn.to/2mlPVh5
The View from a Drawbridge 
When I first came here from subarctic regions 40-some years back, I was astounded at finding trees that get flowers *before* they get leaves. I’ve noticed, over those decades, that now they usually bloom abt 2 weeks earlier’n they did then.
Are you implying that the climate is changing, Angi? Gasp! Sacrilege! Yeah. The abrupt change to spring around here always startles me. In Florida we didn’t get spring. Or fall. Or more than a month of winter, truth be told.