The Cherry Blossom

Blog Post 8


I forgot what my yard looked like in the spring. Throughout the winter, it was barren. Empty tree branches pointing all different directions. Sharp edges from bare bushes threatened me as I took my dog outside. Plants wrapping around our porch’s edges were dry and brittle, crumbling under a gentle touch. I hated being outside. This winter was particularly bad, having barely snowed. At least when the snow falls it coats everything in a soft layer of white. Without it, everything just looks dead.

With the first beautiful weekend of spring, everything bloomed around me. As I planted lettuce in my side yard, the neighbor’s Cherry Blossom opened above me. It was the first time I ever witnessed a tree bloom in real time. When I started that morning, the tree was nothing but branches and closed off buds. With the sporadic weather the previous week, we were worried whether plants would bloom or not.

It was cool yet sunny on Sunday. The perfect day to do work outside. It was the kind of weather that breathes life into you. It was breathing life into everything around us. I worked under the tree for close to two hours. We had to prepare the ground, loosening the soil up and plotting the garden’s layout. Our work was interrupted when our dog decided to leave the yard and hang out on the patio of a coffee shop down the road. In all the chaos, I never once looked up.

I didn’t look at the tree towering above my head until all my own work was done. I always tend to get lost in what I need to do, don’t stop to enjoy the day. In the time that I was working, the tree above my head blossomed. Beautiful white and pink flowers had bloomed just feet above me. Their flowers opened fully, soaking in the afternoon sun. I didn’t realize how quickly it could happen. There’s something special about getting to be the first eyes on a flower’s bloom.

In this moment, I wished this was my tree. I didn’t know it was a Cherry Blossom. I had never paid it any attention. At least not this winter. It was so beautiful. I wanted to say this is the tree I’ve been waiting months to see. This is what I’ve spent so much time speculating. But it was not. My tree has not bloomed into anything yet. No leaves have grown from its branches. It is going to be a late bloomer. When this tree blossomed in just hours, mine will choose to take days, maybe weeks, before showing any signs of spring life. And I will still be waiting.

The Fence

The fence surrounding the tree in my backyard is deteriorating. I don’t know how long it’s been going on, but it must have been years. I can guess what it originally looked like. It is intact everywhere else in the yard. The bottom half is made up of wooden slats, about three inches wide and one inch apart. The middle section is separated by a thick block of wood, stretching the length of each segment. On top, they nailed wooden lattice which, in most parts of the yard, have been taken over by ivy, creating a little sanctuary of green. Each corner is supported by large wooden posts. The wood hasn’t been stained or painted. I don’t think it was every treated for outside use. Some of it appears to be rotting.

The post supporting the corner where the tree has grown back leans out toward our house. I never noticed how bad it was before. We were outside, taking a look at the yard, getting ready to start our garden and put out some chairs with the nice weather when I came across the bungee. Our fence is held together by a bright blue bungee cord. It wraps around the falling post, anchoring itself to the sturdy section untouched by the growing tree. It must be fairly new. Its color is too bright, too clean to have been there for long.

The wooden slats on the bottom half are almost all broken. The new tree stumps growing from the old own curved out of the side, pushing into the slats until they gave. Where the hole should be from the missing slats lays the lattice that used to be on top. It isn’t attached to anything anymore. The nails popped out of the wooden frame long ago, when the tree grew tall and out into the yard. It looks as if someone arranged the lattice on the ground where it is now. A quick fix to the hole the tree has formed.

With the simple fixes to large structural issues in our fence, I wonder if it was all worth it to begin with. Cutting the tree down to build where they did was another one of their quick fixes. They didn’t bother to do the research. Didn’t actually kill the tree when cutting it down. They didn’t seem to care enough about the fence to fully remove the stump. And now, they don’t care to cut the tree back. Or care to actually fix the fence. The owner of the house seems perfectly content allowing the tree to continue to grow and break the fence down more and more. It makes me wonder why they even bothered to cut it down the first time around. Why not just build around it? If they had done that, nothing would be broken. Now all that’s left is a busted fence and this deformed tree.