Cherry Blossom

At long last (about a month later than last year) the cherry blossom has finally bloomed; bursting along the tendril like branches.

The more picturesque and complex blossoms are designed to be ornamental; they look fabulous but will not normally produce fruit.

The more plain white flowers still look wonderful, especially as we have been so long under the chilly spell of spring. Knowing that they may later produce fruit, makes the prospect even sweeter.

I even spotted a cherry tree reaching out over the Itchen River, so we might have some water bound fun here later on.

It’s certainly looks a good spot for a Swallows and Amazons style Picknik shipmates!

Now is the time to spot where the cherry trees are in your neighbourhood, the florid trees are easy to spot and they are everywhere in the city.

No Prizes for guessing this location!

The ancient and eldrich Elder trees are getting ready to flower too, and the beautiful Bluebells are finally showing in woodland glades. Park Wood should look glorious for the festival but this Saturday, we are going to Butser Ancient Farm, for a brilliant Beltain.

Elder Ahoy!



Sweet as Cherry Pie

You know Summer has truly arrived when you are picking cherries. This fact is still true, even if it is the wettest June on record.



Someone Has Beaten Us To It



We braved the showery weather and nipped out to see what we could get. First stop was the tree where I work in Hedge End but most of these had been eaten by birds ;-(

Yuk!

We did get a few here though and I enjoyed watching the kids test the cherries on the adjacent tree, which look lovely but taste quite foul  - I did warn them but maybe they didn’t believe me because they tried them anyway.

Then we spotted another tree full of fairly small ripe looking fruit. These were delicate, almost translucent cherries and they tasted good to eat. This put a smile on our faces and we set about picking/eating as many as we could.



Yummy!



It wasn’t long before it started raining again but by this point we had already bagged ourselves a couple of Kilos. So, it was back to base with our fruity booty; we checked out a few other potential trees on our way home.

Expect further cherry related exploits and recipes in the near future as the various trees ripen and we dual, hand to wing if necessary with our avian adversary. Till then, it’s cherries all round during the annual disappointment of Wimbledon.

Cherry Blossom

 March gives way to April, daffodils blur into bluebells and plum bloom passes the baton to the cherry blossom (apple and pear flowers will follow shortly)...

You know that Spring is well under way when you can spot cherry blossom by the roadsides. Once you can recognise the antenna like branches, festooned with pink or white flowers, you begin to realise how very common these trees are.

White Bloom on a Blue Sky

The Cherry is a native tree, they grow wild in woodland and fields but they are also highly ornamental and are often planted to line roadsides, avenues and even supermarket car parks.

Close-Up of Cherry Flowers

Some of the more decorative blooms will not later develop into useful fruit but a great many of these everyday trees will bear a huge crop of juicy dark red cherries.

A Cherry Blossom Vortex (perhaps)

The thing that always surprises me, is that nearly all of these delicious beauties will be eaten by the birds; I rarely see other families out picking cherries locally even though they cost a fortune in the supermarket; we gathered bucket loads just in the St Deny’s area of Southampton last year.

Cherry Trees are Common, Even in the City

Cherries ripen around June/July and many will be sweet enough to be eaten straight off the tree. Others will taste tart, so these will be better for cooking. After the huge success of my poached pears, I’m going to have a go at bottling some cherries this year. The benefit of this is being able to eat cherries with ice cream, out of season.



Antenna



What we really need this year, is a local machine hire company to lend us a Powered Cherry Picker to drive us up into the branches of the larger trees, in order to relieve them of their ruby red jewels, this would enable us to beat the birds at their own game and stock up our kitchen cupboards.

It would also represent an interesting PR opportunity for a suitable machine hire company, so if any readers are employed in this field, I’m looking for suggestions and would like to stage some Cherry Picknik events this coming summer.

This Tree is in a Well-Known DIY Store Carpark