Cherry Blossom And The Joys Of Spring

Spring is well and truly upon us and around the northern hemisphere of our beautiful planet, the Cherry Trees are coming into full bloom. After a long and wet winter of 2019-2020, the sun is finally shining and life is returning to gardens, fields and hedgerows. Wether you like to see bluebells in the woods or fields of daffodils, there is a lot to smile about here at the moment. That may seem a bit strange considering the corona virus outbreak, but I like to try to find something positive to raise my spirits.

One thing that is bold as anything this week is definitely the riot of pink blooms on the local Cherry Trees. the early spring flowers, crocus, snowdrops and daffodils have all had their moment, but Cherry Blossom has its proud "hold my beer!" moment every year. There's nothing quite like it and it's no surprise that poets have waxed lyrical about it over the centuries.

In Japan it's almost a religion with the annual "Hanami" becoming a world renowned cultural experience. It began as a way for the Imperial family and elite at court to sit beneath the blossoming tree's, drink sake and contemplate the beauty of the blossom. It wasn't long before it spread to the Samurai and eventually to the general public. Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune encouraged the hanami by planting a great number of Cherry Blossom Trees so the people could enjoy the feast each spring and the custom quite literally blossomed.

The "Sakura Zensen", or "Cherry Blossom Front", is tracked by the Japanese Meteorological Office as the tree's blossom from south to north as spring progresses. The Sakura Zensen forecast on TV is given great consideration by the people of Japan so they can time their "hanami" just right and enjoy the blossom with family and friends. This year it coincides nicely with Easter here in the UK and it's nice to be able to get out with my camera and enjoy the most colourful display of the season.

There's ne escaping the effects of the corona virus here. The streets are much quieter than normal, traffic levels are a fraction of what they were a few short weeks previously and the skies are free from contrails as Airlines have grounded all but the most essential services. Travelling to other countries is virtually non existent, it's difficult to justify a journey across town, never mind across Europe. This means Spring 2020 is one of the "greenest" springs since records began.

Across the world pollution has plummeted. China has been one of the big polluters of our atmosphere, but with their streets deserted as they all stayed home to combat the corona virus, vehicle emmissions are a mere fraction of previous levels. Across the world, especially the industrial nations, vehicle emmissions have dropped so low our atmosphere is getting a much needed chance to clean itself and recover from centuries of industrial pollution. This is probably the best chance we will ever have to reset our economic dependence on fossil fuels and move to cleaner energy generation and transportation.

I am old enough to remember the time when most houses had a coal fire, my grandparents did and I learned to treat a fire with respect thanks to my Grandparents. The daily ritual began with lighting the fire and ended with banking the embers before bedtime. As we now know, burning coal is a massive contributor to CO2 levels in our atmosphere, but right up to the 1970's it was normal. When natural gas was discovered the old Coal Gas plants all closed as we switched to North Sea Gas powered central heating and cooking. This current crisis could well be the catalyst for us to finally breathe clean air and enjoy a transition to electricity generated solely by wind, solar and hydro electric power stations. I know it's not likely to happen soon, but taking a deep breath, filling your lungs and not having to cough a load of pollutants up afterwards is definitely an incentive to change..

One thing I do know for certain is that 2020 will be recorded in the rings of trees around the world as they get to grow in better conditions than perhaps they have ever known. Billions of trees have grown in the last 100 years or so and will never have grown in a clean atmosphere. However, there are still some ancient trees around the world that began their lives whilst Humanity was still living a pastoral life before the advent of the Industrial revolution. I wonder what future dendrochronologists will make of the sudden big growth ring for spring and summer 2020? That's one statistic I hope to live long enough to see being studied.

It's good to contemplate beneath the Cherry Blossom and I have enjoyed getting out and capturing images of it in all it's glory this year. I had saved a roll of Kodak Vision 3 250D colour cine film just for the Cherry Blossom and need to send it for processing to Nik & Trick Photo Services, the good folks I bought it from. It took a lot of self control to shoot the film over two days as I could so easily have shot two or three rolls of natures finest display. I can't wait to see how they turn out and I will share them with you in the not too distant future. I also shot a lot of images with my Nikon D90, an AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm DX VR GII kit lens and an AF Nikkor 24-120mm D full frame lens.  I hope you enjoy contemplating the beauty of nature from the comfort of your sofa as much as I did taking them. 
Please visit Nik and Trick at https://ntphotoworks.com/