5.06.2012

A Walk in the Park

After two weeks of avoiding blogging I am running out of excuses why I can't park myself in front of the computer and let everyone know what is happening in our lives. The weather has been so wonderful lately that I have been trying to keep the boys outside about as much as their little bodies can handle it. However, seeing as William decided to wake up at 5 am this morning (again), I find myself with lots of free time in which to blog. We have been pretty busy in the past couple of weeks so I might have to post every day before I am caught up to current events. I hope William doesn't take that as his cue to wake up at 5 every morning!

I have been enjoying spring to no end. Usually, April - May in Manitoba was a time of melting snow, flooding, mud, brown grass, and chilliness. Just to remind myself of what it was like, I checked out a post I had written almost exactly a year ago in Manitoba. Here in Fukuyama we transitioned in a span of two weeks from relatively chilly to warmth, green life, and a profusion of flowers.  There are so many plants doing wonderful things that I finding hard not to stop and inspect them all. The sakura have long since dropped all of their petals but since I am so behind in posting, here are a few pictures of a picnic we took while they were in full bloom.

We traveled with our neighbours to Senkoji park in Onomichi, which is about 10 minutes west by train. The park is on the top of a 140 meter hill and has a cable car that you can take to the top. The kids were overjoyed to take the cable car.



Once we arrived at the top, we were treated to a breathtaking view of the town and harbour with pale sakura blossoms everywhere you looked



I don't think we will ever get a family picture where Theo doesn't look like a caged animal



William's favourite part was yanking the petals off


and Theo's was climbing the trees. What boys!



I found a patch of gorgeous shelf mushrooms



The cherry blossom season was short lived but I am glad that we were able to enjoy the beauty of the cherry trees at Senkoji park while they lasted.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Laura - it looks like you got some great blossom viewing in. Sorry I didn't reply to your last e-mail, my computer swallowed up all my in-box.... I hope you make it down this way sometime. You are always welcome.

The Freys said...

Got to love the firm hand placed on Theo's arm from either parent, and the rear facing William who is craning his neck to look at the camera! I totally sympathize. In our family pictures, we can't get the boys to actually smile nicely!
We really enjoyed the cherry blossoms in China too. I don't know if they were the same variety, but they certainly looked the same as your pictures. Very beautiful and fragrant!