The theme for this month's Genealogy Blog Party is "Spring Fever"!
Check out the rest of the Genealogy Blog Party here.
To me, 'spring fever' in Vancouver, BC, Canada, always meant that sudden urge to be outside, enjoying whatever sun there was, after an often grey and gloomy west coast winter.
To my mum, born and bred on the Canadian prairies where winter was really winter, it seemed to mean 'spring cleaning'. Time for turning out the closets, banishing any dust, washing and polishing floors, and mothballing (really!) our heavy winter clothes.
Even as a kid and certainly as an adult, I've associated 'Spring Fever' in Vancouver, BC with the blossoming of the cherry trees in April/May. And, of course, with the "Queen's Birthday", the 24th of May, our Canadian holiday that usually heralds the coming of summer.
I pulled these photos out of my albums. Here are my parents at their new home in 1940s Vancouver enjoying their very own cherry tree. I remember that tree even though I was quite small when we left there. Our next house also had a cherry tree (and apple trees as well).
I expect they sent these photos to my Na, mum's mum. At the time they were persuading her to come and live in Vancouver. This house had room for them, and Na, (and me, either just on the way or soon to be). Now like most houses in the area, it's been demolished.
And there might have been a little romance to this tree for my parents as they met and married in Washington, DC, USA where rows and rows of cherry trees have bloomed since the 1910s. I remember my mum talking about them and she had a few pictures.
Vancouver's Cherry Blossom Festival didn't start till 2005, but on our Spring Sunday drives in the 1950s, we'd be out like many families admiring the trees. This wasn't likely something my dad's family had done in earlier Vancouver days, even though grandpa was a gardener and early on many people had cherry trees in their yards or on farms.
The city had started to favour lower flowering trees instead of the bigger shade trees, but the first big installation of cherry trees here was in the 1930s when the Japanese cities, Kobe and Yokohama, sent cherry trees for the World War I Japanese Canadian memorial in Stanley Park.
Plan on being in Vancouver during Spring Fever. Here's a list of the best spots to view the blossoms (and there's now a Vancouver Brewery and Blossom walking tour). Different times!
Cherry blossoms are, indeed, beautiful. I haven't been to Vancouver during the flower season, but have seen them in Washington, DC. We recently stopped in Victoria, B.C. on a cruise. I saw lots of beautiful flowers - especially tulips, which are my favorite - but no cherry blossoms there, either.
ReplyDeleteHi, Linda.
ReplyDeleteVictoria BC does indeed have lots of flowers and I love to see the hanging baskets downtown. I was just there last week. Victoria always boasts earlier flowers than Vancouver. And they actually say they count the blossoms. Here is this year's count from March :-) "44 billion blossoms counted in Greater Victoria Flower Count": https://www.vicnews.com/news/greater-victoria-has-almost-six-times-as-many-blossoms-as-there-are-people-in-the-world/
I would love to visit Canada sometime! Everywhere I go, I seem to just miss the beautiful blooms that different places are known for. I was in the Holland, Michigan before the tulips bloomed. My sister and I visited Washington, DC in the summer, and therefore missed the cherry blossoms. So, I need to time my Canadian visit for just the right time, right?! Lol
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post! Even in black-and-white, the cherry tree in the first photo is magnificent.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I remember cherry and apple trees as harbingers of spring in upstate New York, where I spent my childhood. Still love seeing them every year -- along with the beautiful rain of falling petals as they being to leaf out. Sad that your family house was demolished -- how fortunate that it's still enshrined in these lovely family photos.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds lovely! I know cherry trees do well on the West Coast as there are many on the University of Washington campus in Seattle and the Capitol Campus in Olympia here in Washington State. Someday, I will need to visit Vancouver again, and Victoria, especially all the wonderful gardens.
ReplyDeleteVancouver in the springtime sounds beautiful. Thank you for sharing your post in the May Genealogy Blog Part!
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone, for commenting. We all love to see the flowers. :-) And this was a fun theme too.
ReplyDelete