Spring Blossoms - 50with50 No. 13

Spring Has Sprung

Colorful spring blossoms fill our front yard in the latest entry in the 50with50 series.

Not long after we moved into our house 20 years ago, we started planting some trees in the front yard. We got a few different mailings of twigs from the Arbor Day Foundation. Some of them lived, and some of them did not do so well. And some of them are still alive today.

Somewhere along the way, we lost track of which tree was which. And we aren’t exactly “tree people” in that we can’t identify every kind of tree that there is. I am always impressed by those who can do that, because it is not a talent that I possess.

Thanks to one of those tree-identifying apps, we have determined that this is a type of wild cherry tree. Although it has not ever had any cherries. Yet.

Maybe one of these days we will be better at knowing which trees are which!

Grandmothers

Identifying trees is one of those situations that makes me miss my grandmother. She seemed to know every single kind of tree either by its leaf, its flower, or its bark. She knew when to move them from one place to the next. We would always consult her before transplanting any trees at our house. I never did know how she had such an encyclopedic knowledge of trees, except for the fact that she grew up on a farm and that knowledge was passed down through the generations. It didn’t make it to me.

As I said above, we used an iPhone app to identify some of the trees in our front yard. I took a photo of either the leaf or the flower, and the app gave me some choices that it felt matched the photos I had taken.

But I wonder if the app really works on grandmother power. Maybe when you take a photo of a leaf, the app quickly sends it out to someone’s grandmother somewhere, and she immediately says, “Oh, that’s a wild cherry tree!” And then the app sends back to the user all of the different varieties of wild cherry trees that live in that area.

If I had designed the app, that is how it would have worked. You could employ retirement home residents just looking for something to do. Everyone wins!

In fact, you could have a whole line of grandmother-powered apps. Cleaning tips, sewing instructions, cooking and recipes, and so on. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Actually, you don’t even need an app for that. Just take the time to ask a grandmother something. It can be any grandmother if yours is not around. Grandfathers, too. They will be happy to share with you what they have learned over the years. It will make them feel important, and you will have learned from it. Everyone wins!

Bible Verse

Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. - Deuteronomy 32:7

About the Photo

A few days ago, Laura had noticed how nicely some of the trees in our front yard were blooming. So when we had a sunny day, I grabbed my camera and 50mm lens and went outside to see what I could see.

Of course, the flowering fruit trees caught my eye first, and that is what I spent the most time photographing. But I did take a few other photos of some of the other trees, and you may see those in future 50with50 posts.

When I was first starting this 50with50 series, I had plans for photos from all sorts of exotic locations, like New York and Chicago. But as you can probably guess, those trips have been cancelled due to COVID-19, so for now our trees outside and things inside our house are what I have to photograph. Which isn’t bad, just not necessarily what I had planned.

In the words of a distant relative of long ago, Robert Burns, “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy!” Our schemes haven’t exactly gone as planned, but fortunately we have not had any grief or pain. Hope you can say the same!

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Aurora HDR. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: SonyFE 50mm f/1.8
Date: April 3, 2020
Location: Home, Williston, Tennessee