Dressed all in white
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide… From ‘Loveliest of Trees’ by A. E. Housman
IN wood and orchard, along hedge and on mountain, the trees of spring are in blossom. Such a word, blossom. Plants, down on the ground, merely bloom, but trees blossom, the sibilance suggestive of spring’s fizzing energy after leaden dull winter. Rowan. Wild cherry. Blackthorn. Crab apple. Hawthorn. Wild pear. Wild service tree. All of them brilliant white in their flowering, like wedding gowns and confirmation dresses for Eastertide.
The lightened days of spring touch the trees’ blossom into white—or is it the other way
