It’s that time of year, what did we expect?
But hey, it’s not just cherry blossoms! Vancouver and surrounding areas sport tons of different flowers, most of which were just sort of… in the background. I don’t really know much about flowers, to be honest, but I learned a little this week.
On Tuesday evening I got off the bus at Broughton, and took a photo of one of the highrise condos there, framed by cherry blossom branches. I thought that had potential, so I kept it in reserve. But then I ended up using a similar photo I took at Haro & Jervis, of a building framed by magnolia flowers. I wish there had been a little more light, but I love the contrast of hard lines and fleshy curves. Plus, I think the sandy beige and soft pink work quite well together.
The following day I revisited those condos, and after playing around with different perspectives, settled on a lovely reflection shot framed by an abundance of cherry blossoms.
And then I thought, maybe this is going to be a theme? Nicolas Looking Up At Buildings Along With Some Flowers? But that didn’t happen because the following morning I spied some amazing fuchsia-coloured flowers, still wet from the rain, and I couldn’t resist. A little googling told me they’re called Azaleas; varieties come in all sorts of colours, but they all seem to have the same basic shape (5 large raggedy petals) and a weird pattern of little dots in the topmost petal. I guess that’s to signal bees, or whichever pollinators prefer azaleas in the wild?
The next day starred some pretty little bell-shaped flowers, with a pearly white colour. More googling told me they’re called lily-of-the-valley or Pieri “Forest Flame” , a.k.a. muguet in French. I know those flowers, we had a few growing in our backyard in Ottawa. I think. I don’t remember largish bushes or dark green leaves. Also the flowers were more spherical, and a more solid white. So… regional variations? Two completely different plants? I’m really not sure.
Saturday was our first outdoor Taiji practice in a long while, at Blue Mountain Park. The sun was shining (most of the time), it was warm-ish, so I celebrated by shooting some of the local cherry blossoms.
The flowers may not be here for long, though. Some are wilting and drying, and a whole bunch of trees are already shedding their petals. It’s a bit sad, but I’m okay with it. To everything there is a season.