Trees - beautiful trees - cherry and fruits and leaves to eat

Trees are so beautiful when they come alive in spring with blossom. In Washington DC the streets are lined with cherry blossom trees given by the Japanese after WWII as a peace offering. You'll see more in Canada.  We once did a drive north south - or was it the other way around - in the Fall (autumn) to see the Maple leaves changing colour (as well as tourist sites along the route. You could do the same for cherry blossom.

Over in Europe the streets of Hatch End and Pinner in North London have cherry or plum blossom. I rush out with my camera on sunny days. Apparently Sweden, which I would associate with fir trees, also has cherry blossom.

Over in Asia, Japan has many types of cherry blossom. Singapore is better known for palm trees, coconut palms, and fruit and nut trees such as mango and cashew nut trees. But an excellent article in Today newspaper of Singapore alerted me to different types of cherry and similar fruit trees. The newspaper reporters interviewed at expert at Gardens By The Bay, an outing which I recommend. I spent most of the day there. We booked online in advance we thought to be sure of getting and reduce queuing but still had to walk around to find the right queue and then queue to collecting tickets. Afterwards we enjoyed the free surrounding area which has waterside walks through tree-lined paths with notice boards describing the trees.

I am compiling and keeping a Keynote slide presentation on trees. (Keynote is Apple's version of Powerpoint.)

If you are short of time and can't book Gardens By The Bay in Singapore, go to the Botanical Gardens. See my next post on the Botanical Gardens.

Gardens By The Bay

http://www.todayonline.com/lifestyle/travel/five-things-say-sound-cherry-blossom-expert
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Free Pleasure For Travellers - Gardens Galore Worldwide

Walking around most countries a free pleasure is admiring gardens. International attention has been drawn to the wisteria covering a house in England. It takes two days a year to prune.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3113040/From-just-one-tiny-vine-mass-wisteria-Couple-s-cottage-covered-glorious-climbing-plant-grown-250ft-planted-43-years-ago.html

If you are able and willing to pay and travel, the well known gardens are Kew Gardens in south London. But if you want a free pleasure, in England in London suburbs and other cities you can admire trees and flowers. In spring London suburbs have cherry blossom trees.

In springtime, as Wordsworth described, public areas, especially woods have flowers such as Daffodils. The many front gardens have daffodils growing gaily.

Most councils plants bulbs along the public roads. A competition Britain in Bloom encourages displays in public places and many areas have competitions for the best front garden.

Many garden centres in the UK have cafes. The plant labels are an education for children and adults.

Wisteria on a house in Hatch End, Pinner, London, England.

USA Trees For Free
In the USA in Washington DC you can see the pink blossoms on cherry blossom trees donated by the Japanese after World War II as a peace offering. In autumn, called Fall in America, we used to drive along the East coast admiring the leaves changing colour, reds, greens, browns, yellows.

On the west coast travellers drivers and walkers and hikers admire the giant trunks of the sequoia trees.

Singapore - Palm Trees and Gardens For Free
In Singapore the drive from the airport passes between avenues of magnificent canopy trees. Palm trees come in many shapes and sizes. A source of joy in grand parks and botanical gardens in Asia is the  banyan trees with numerous trunks.

In Singapore you can visit the Gardens By The Bay and read about the uses of the trees. The Gardens by the Bay are in an air conditioned glass sided giant attraction. One of the two main attractions has sculptures. The other has a giant waterfall which you can view from walkways at ground level and at the top and midpoints.

Photo by Trevor Sharot

Singapore has many kinds of palms, such as coconut palms. You can also see mango trees on the East Coast road in the Bedok area. When I was in Singapore in May this year mangoes had fallen on the paths in the street below my feet.

But if you are happy to walk around in the heat, carrying your own water bottle, you can happily spend an hour or two outside the attraction seeing similar trees. Plaques outside like the ones indoors give the tree names and usual locations in the world and uses or history or how they are featured in literature and myths. The outside area along the riverside is free.

Previous posts on this travel blog show palm trees and Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons Travel Writer and photographer, author, speaker. Please read more on Facebook and like my page, link to me on LinkedIn, enjoy watching me reading comic poetry on YouTube and read about my books and buy them on Lulu.com

Seasonal Cherry Blossom in England

In England the daffodils are in the front gardens in London, and the cherry blossoms are in the high streets and suburban residential side streets.  

I imagine the cherry blossoms must be blooming in Japan, and in Washington DC, whose streets bloom with cherry blossom trees donated to the USA by the Japanese as a postwar peace offering.

Spring flowers - daffodils in London, cherry blossom California and Japan

In London we always have daffodils in March. Weather can vary and change quickly. A fortnight ago it was chilly with flooding. Now the flowers are out.
    When I was a teenager we were in the garden in March. In 1979 when I was pregnant I looked out of the hospital window and saw snow. The following week I was walking into a block of flats wearing slippers.
   This year in London in March you can see yellow daffodils, white and pink camellias, and yellow forsythia bushes, and pink cherry blossom on the trees.

UK garden flowers in the garden in March 2014.

UK garden flowers close up, cut and in a kitchen table vase in March 2014.

Forsythia bushes make a big splash of yellow in gardens.

 Camelias

   In the USA you will see lots of cherry trees because the Japanese sent cherry trees to Washington DC as a post-war peace offering.
On the other side of America the annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival® will be on Saturday and Sunday April 12-13 and April 19-20, 2014. Celebrate Japanese and Japanese American culture in San Francisco’s Japantown!