We had a couple of lovely days last weekend. Just enough to make the fruit trees and Spring show-offs bud. Monday we had snow flurries and rain but it has and is slowly moderating so that the Tulip/ Japanese Magnolia trees, Jonquils, forsythia are stretching to peak. A main thoroughfare here is called Crabapple and those trees are now beautifully in bloom. But the real crème de la crème is the weeping cherry tree. My Grandson and I had an “argument” last year because I called them Cherry trees but was informed they were Cherry Blossom trees and that my son/ his uncle in New Orleans called them that too. Whatever! These were small landscape beauties introduced in Atlanta at the peak of its growth as a city, say 50s through the 60s. I fell in love with their beauty and grace so when I moved away I tried planting them other places but like most hybrid grafts they didn’t thrive. Now those that survived in Atlanta are huge. After only 50 or so years they are as large as the Live Oaks of the east coast and a mass of cherry blossoms but as graceful as weeping willows.
The going-away dinner for Zachariah was fun and thus I think a success. The Bar B Q, potato salad, tossed salad, baked beans etc weren’t nearly as enjoyable as the table cloth. It was a hit. I got one of those plastic ones and with Sharpie drew all the puns of going West like a covered wagon, great falls (not to be confused with Great Falls) Greely’s quote etc and then all the guests drew and wrote on it as well. They were more creative with a theme that he was likely to be mauled by bison, bear etc. He can use it for a sheet, tarp, tent, shower curtain or whatever in his new adventure with a guarantee to cure nostalgia for the folk he left. That took so much time we never got to the other entertainment, pin the Trail of the Honky. Just as well. It would have ruined my globe.
Found a great out-of-print, rare book I’ve been drooling over for about a year. Cheapest current price $112 US so by-passed it though I actually wanted it so much I seriously considered forking over that much. Found it today somewhere else for less than $15. Won’t arrive ‘til April 8th and can barely wait.
