This picture doesn't look like much when it's small, but click on it for a larger (1,600 × 1,200) version suitable for what I think is a lovely desktop background. It's from our trip to the Takaragaike Children's Park, mentioned in the previous post.

UPDATE: more cherry-blossom backgrounds from the same trip.

Today we went up to the Takaragaike Children's Park, a wonderful playground with lots of fun things for young kids (those older than elementary-school age are not allowed in unless accompanied by someone in elementary school or younger).

It's in a cooler area of Kyoto than we are (they get a fair amount more snow during the winter, for example; as the blog of Nils, who lives up there, will attest). Being cooler, some of their cherry blossoms are peaking and fading a bit later than ours.

Here's a tree right between the "petals fallen" and "leaves [...]

After Anthony woke up from his afternoon nap, he wanted to do some cooking play with me. He had something specific in mind, suggesting:

(Jouzu is 上手, Japanese for "skillful")

It was so precious (and, for that matter, on target) that I immediately took a moment to write it down just as he said it.

(In the end, I think my pretend food was pretty pretend tasty... after all, what good is an imagination if you can't use it to better yourself 🙂

When a cherry tree starts to give up its petals, it does so in great bursts and flurries. A puff of wind will come along, and every darn petal will spring into the air in a veritable supernova of off-white pink that becomes a localized blizzard as it swirls and dissipates in all directions. Gravity eventually wins, and the ground becomes a thick bed of blossoms sometimes several inches thick.

It's beautiful and mesmerizing, but the most amazing thing about it is that after every petal has been lost to that breeze, the tree remains as heavily laden [...]

Today at the playground....

This was followed by what might only be described as a "silly dance", and then play on the slide.