Last week Fumie and I visited a picturesque temple called Ryouanji. I've put together a little photo collection from the trip.

Going through some photos from my recent trip to Ohio, I came across this cute photo of a Mommy goose leading her babies to get some corn from Anthony and me. (Only six of the eleven are hers -- she stole the rest from two other couples.) This was at the lake behind my folks' place.

We had a late-April snow storm which accumulated a few inches.

But by the afternoon it was virtually all gone.

By the next day we were already taking walks around the lake.

And by the next day, we were mowing the lawn....

What a difference a few days makes. The two pictures above were taken six days apart, one before the blossoms had bloomed, and one after. (Actually, I have another picture taken just two days after the first which shows equally barren branches, but it's not as perfect a match location-wise.)

Here are a few more comparison shots: one, two, three.

There was some sun in a few of my cherry-blossom pictures, but for the most part there was very little sun this cherry-blossom season, and I was sick for most of it. I finally uploaded my [...]

Truly, the cherry blossoms are quite pretty around where I live (map), thankfully neglected by the majority of both tourists and locals alike. While sitting with Anthony under some blossoms yesterday, I thought about how many have tried to put the feeling into words, and how they certainly must have failed. Not being one to pass up a chance to fail miserably, I've given it a go myself:

            Oh humble Cherry Tree             Passing the year in quiet slumber             Alive after the long winter             Heavily laden with Spring's finest glory             Beauty beyond the grasp of words             Not retarded crap like [...]