High Park Cherry Blossoms...success!

Despite the clouds and drizzling weather, I was finally able to make it out to see the High Park cherry blossoms this year! We took the TTC down to High Park and spent the afternoon wandering the park. There were a lot of people around the cherry blossoms, but if you went past that and continued through the park, the crowds gradually thinned out and we were able to have a nice picnic lunch. We also managed to feed some squirrels some peanuts that some visitors had left behind.

It was nice to discover a part of Toronto I had never been to before. Definitely serves as a reminder that you don't have to look very far to find extraordinary things.

“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.”
 -Alice M. Swaim 

Cherry Blossoms, attempt 2

We've been lucky with unseasonably warm weather lately, and as a result, the cherry blossoms in High Park have begun to blossom early! (Last year, they were late, and conflicted with my trip to New York City, so I was unable to go.) I'm determined to tick this off my bucket list this time; it's been a while.... >.<"

They are at about 50-65% in certain sections, less in others, with many predicting next weekend to be peak bloom. So make a trip out -- try to take the TTC, as parking is sure to be terrible -- and enjoy our own local cherry blossoms.

Posted on the High Park Nature Centre's Facebook page today:

Cherry Blossoms

"The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all."

I have lived in the Greater Toronto Area for nearly my entire life. For whatever reason, I only just today discovered that Toronto has its own cherry blossom park.

"In 1959, the Japanese ambassador to Canada, Toru-Hagiwara, presented 2000 Japanese Somei-Yoshino Sakura trees to the citizens of Toronto on behalf of the citizens of Tokyo. The trees were planted in appreciation of Toronto accepting re-located Japanese-Canadians following the Second World War."

Here I was, thinking about putting "Go to Japan to see cherry blossoms" on my bucket list, and all I could have done was just go to High Park. I love cherry blossoms.

They finally bloomed this weekend. I wished I could have taken my mother and the rest of my fam. It would have been amazing to celebrate Mother's Day amongst such beauty. I can't even see them before they fall because I'm leaving on Wednesday to go to New York City, and by the time I come back, it will have been too late. For future reference, the High Park Nature Centre keeps a blog and updates its readers about the progress of the cherry blossoms, as they don't last for very long, and timing is essential.

I'm actually really disappointed that I didn't get to see them this year. Sigh. Next year, I suppose. And so it's officially on the bucket list...

"In the cherry blossom's shade
there's no such thing
as a stranger."
— Kobayashi Issa