Sakura

Somehow, amidst all this rain and cold, the cherry blossoms have managed to all bloom together on the one single day of brief warm sunlight we've had in ages.  I was just starting to think summer was never coming, but this day of pink trees and blue skies just might change my mind :)  I had my own mini-Hanami (the centuries old Japanese tradition of picknicking and enjoying the blossoms) under a Prunus serrulata in the park near my new house that slowly turned into a Yozakura (cherry blossoms by moonlight) as the afternoon/evening and bottles of wine wore on and more and more people joined me.  These luminous, intense blossoms are extremely beautiful but wistful in their transient, fleeting, ephemeral nature and quick death - a metaphor for all of life itself really.