Saturday, March 29, 2008

It's apple blossom time

Another post on trees, but definitely more cheerful than the last. I need to look at something cheerful to balance out all the depressing reality.

I heard a report on the BBC yesterday about the beginning of the cherry blossom season in Japan. The cherry blossom festival in Japan is so important that they have forecasters who predict the date the blossoms will open, and this year he was a little off, and made a formal apology to the people on television.

In Palestine, the beginning of the spring weather is heralded by the almond blossoms. I tried to post a few pictures of almond blossoms in a previous post, but I couldn't get any close ups then. Those blossoms have a slightly purplish tint, but the small tree we have in our front yard has pure white flowers. I finally got a close up. Today, the tree is full of little green almonds, but not for long. People here are fond of eating them when they are small, green and sour. You can eat the whole thing, because the nut has not hardened in side.After the almonds finish blooming, the plum trees start. This tree is right by my back door. Plums and almonds get their flowers first, and then leaves. The apples and pomegranates get leaves first, and then the flowers. The pomegranate's leaves are red when they first come out.This morning I went into the back yard for the first time in a couple days, and was shocked to see that the apple tree was the whole way bloomed. Spring has blown past way too fast. I am sure that these trees are blooming earlier than usual.
I love these apple blossoms, because of the delicate pink tinge on the petals. Very soon we will have lemon and calamantina blossoms to look at, and then the pomegranate, which has the coolest looking flowers of all. (calamantinas are like a tangerines)

12 comments:

Umm Ibrahim said...

Assalaamu alaikum... Masha'Allah, beautiful!

alajnabiya said...

Thank you. Believe it or not, it is currently hailing on my poor apple blossoms! MashaAllah. Last chance for crazy March weather, I guess. I loved the pictures of the majnoonah on your blog. Do they call it majnoonah there? Bougainvillea is way too hard for me to spell.

alajnabiya said...

And wa 'alaikum assalaam!

Umm Ibrahim said...

Majnoonah... I have no idea! Doesn't that mean 'mad' though??!

alajnabiya said...

"Mad" as in "crazy," yes. It is sort of a crazy plant, isn't it? The leaves look like flowers and the flowers are actually the tiny little white centers, and it blooms "like mad." Notice the word is feminine though....

Unknown said...

MashAllah. Lovely. We have buds and leaves here in Amman too. My trees are very small still, but inshAllah we will get something this year. There are tiny little almonds and some little plums I think. Your almonds are much bigger. When does the Eskadenia bloom? That is the Loquat.

alajnabiya said...

It blooms through the winter and now has small fruits on it. I went and checked, and the ones on my tree now are green and only about the size of my little finger tip. I think they will be ripe in a month or so. I had a couple pictures of the flowers in a post in January.
http://alajnabiya.blogspot.com/2008/01/in-bloom.html

Does anyone know if there is a way to make a clickable link in the comments? Sometimes the full URLs are too long and get broken up.

Umm Ibrahim said...

Salaam... think this is how you do the clickable links: use the < a href=" > tag and end with < /a > No spaces between the < and the rest of the tag though if you get my drift. :)

http://alajnabiya.blogspot.com/2008/01/in-bloom.html

Umm Ibrahim

Susie of Arabia said...

Thanks, Umm Ibrahim, for that tip on the clickable links in comments!

And thanks, Alajnabiya, for those gorgeous photos!!! Your photos are so special and to me, so full of hope and life.

Aaminah Shakur said...

Asalaamu alaikum.

What beautiful photos, mashaAllah! :) Such an uplifting reminder.

The almonds reminded me... a Syrian friend of mine introduced me to such almonds and I enjoyed them but haven't had them in a long time, and suddenly now I long for them and for my friend, who alas, has moved across the country.

Anonymous said...

wow ... seriously amazing pictures.
mashallah.

alajnabiya said...

Thanks za3tar, and thanks for stopping by my blog!