Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 24th April, 2024)

Nice photo David. You did well, they never seem to last long before the wind blows them away.

The poem 'Loveliest of Trees' by Alfred Edward Housman explores the concept that life is short and needs to be embraced before it is too late.

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

The photo as captured the essence of spring.Its a pity that the 1st strong wind or rain will leave the cars/ground with a pink soggy mess all over them.We love looking at Cherry Blossom but it does not last so make the most of them why you can.

Such beautiful blossom, so quickly gone.
Is that Swinley Road David ?

Beautiful Cherry trees! So many cars impacting the road …These days it’s not just one in the family it can be 3 or 4. A lot of front gardens have become car parks.

One of nature's great chameleon trees . From pink blossom to golden oval leaves in Autumn . Lovely picture .

Believe it or not, there is a haunted house on that photo!

It's Swinley Lane, Helen.

The blossom doesn't last because the trees don't belong in chilly wet England, we would be better off sticking to our natural trees, like the Englisk oak and Horse chestnut.

Love this one, Spring is here, shame about the weather though.
Hope you are keeping well Garry.

They have harsh winters in Japan Tom where the Cherrie Trees originate.

Is there a ghost story to tell Irene? If there is fire away!

The Cherry Blossom season doesn’t last any longer in Japan. It’s starts in March and ends in April but further South they can last up to May.
The Japanese celebrate with holidays during the season as the trees are everywhere in streets and parks and bankings.
They celebrate the fact that Spring has arrived. There’s so many different varieties.

Veronica, yes, there IS a ghost story and I would love to sit round Garry's coal fire, (I too hope Garry is okay), with all you Wigan World lot and tell the story, but I can't tell it on here as the people who live in that house now have hopefully never been troubled by the ghost and probably know nothing about it. I just hope that the visitations have stopped now but I know who the ghost was and I assure you it is perfectly true. I actually stayed overnight in that house once, on my own apart from the family dog, but thankfully never saw anything. I wouldn't have stayed if I'd known what I found out just a few days later!
Talking of the Japanese people and plants, I once read somewhere that the Japanese, (or it may have been Chinese), used to deliberately grow plants with very large leaves for the express purpose of hearing the rain pattering on them! I can relate to that as I love hearing the rain pattering on windows and the wind howling in the chimney.

Horse Chestnut and Yew for me, Cherry Tree of the 16th Day is a ghost story of a Japanese tree, but not the ones in Swinley .
This ancient cherry tree tale concerns the ghost of a lonely samurai. In the district of Wakegori dwelled an elderly samurai who had outlived his children and all of his other loved ones. As he grew older and lonelier, his only comfort was the ancient cherry tree in his garden. He had played under this tree as a child, and it had been in his family for generations. One summer, the tree, too, died. The samurai grew more despondent, and on the 16th day of the next January he committed hara-kiri beneath the tree. His ghost entered the tree and made it bloom, and every year since, it is said to bloom again on January 16.

Very interesting story, TD, and I must say I love the poem you added earlier....I had heard part of it before in a book by the author "Miss Read" who was a teacher in a village school but I hadn't realised it was by A E Houseman, of "The Land of Lost Content" fame.

Tom,
The Horse Chestnut is not 'one of our natural trees'. It was brought to the UK in the 1600s from Greece and Albania.

Aww T. D… what a lovely story as well as a sad one,
Irene I remember that story you told me.. I’ve forgotten how many years ago though.

Huff buff and blow the blossom down. Garry leave the sherry alone.

It was a very long time ago, Maureen, at Neil's house.....you and Elizabeth and I always got round to ghost stories when we went for a cup of tea there. Photo-a-Day never fails to trigger off a memory!

I once read a passage in a book where a young man was describing cherry orchards in spring,to a girl who had never seen them. He said " The spring was wonderful. You know how the sky looks at sunset sometimes? Pink and soft. The blossom on the trees was like a thousand thousand pieces of that sky".
I remember those words whenever I see cherry blossom.
Thank you David

Yes Irene,I can remember you telling us the story, several years ago now.it's funny how we always seemed to get round to telling ghost stories.x

The playground of the old Wigan Grammar School on Parsons Walk was lined with cherry trees and for several days in spring the playgrond seemed to be inches deep in blossom. A memory that never fades even if the cherry blossom does. Are the trees still there ?

Irene, as many people before me have said, there's a simple way to know if a house is haunted or not......it's not.

There is one near the old gate posts Carolaen.
I was stood under it when I took the photo for P,A.D
18th April 2024.

Carolaen, Would the playground be what is now the car park for The Linacre Centre? I go regularly for blood tests but can't think of cherry-blossom trees there, unless the playground was in a different place. To be honest I go on the bus and just walk from the gates straight into the Linacre Centre, so I don't really look round to see if there are trees there. I must take notice next time I go.

Gareth, I'm sure you know best. My friend and her husband who lived there, and the people who lived there prior to them and the people who moved in AFTER them, (and lasted a whole week), must have completely imagined it all. My apologies.

I too used to love hearing the wind and rain when tucked up in bed Irene. Not so now, the heavy rains and high winds have scared the lights out of me - it's like sleeping in a tent when the rain hits the velux windows!

David

You should have taken the picture pointing in the opposite direction, showing all of the Cherry Blossom trees in Swinley Lane, going up towards the Brocket and Mesnes Road, which is a very fine sight indeed.

Irene……closed minds,
.

“ There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.