But, thanks to my great wisdom, not where I live.
Instead, this is the closest I've had to snowballs in April.
Oh, I know. They don't look much like snowballs in that picture. But when I was enjoying a wee cocktail on my patio yesterday evening and the wind was blowing the branches around, they did resemble snowballs.
Now many years ago . . . wait . . . it's scores of years ago . . . actually decades ago, I lived in the barren land of snow and ice known as North Dakota. And when I was a bit of a lad it was not unknown for there to be snow in April. In fact, I can remember my mother telling about a blizzard one year on her birthday. And she was born on June 6th!
That's mom and I on a wintry day though I doubt it was on her birthday.
And what idiot left the front door open??!!
On those blissful (remember, ignorance is bliss) days of our youths, it fell to my older brother and I to shovel snow off the sidewalk in front of our house.
As you can see by this photograph, I am practicing my management skills by directing Wayne (the brother) where to put the snow. (He was probably thinking of telling me where to put my advice!)
But wait a second. This is beginning to resemble a Throwback Thursday post and that wasn't my intention.
So let's take a closer look at that snowball tree in our backyard.
The tree is known as a Red Tip Photinia, though you'd be hard pressed to explain that given this picture, covered as it is with snowy white blossoms.
Another look, though, may give you a hint.
Eventually those blossoms will fall away and what will be left is a tree with leaves that turn a deep reddish color. Hence, the red tip monicker.
I have no idea what Photinia means.
But I know this is about as close as I want to get to snowballs these days.
We get that once an year in the spring. Street littered with white blooms ?dogwood?
ReplyDeleteYour winter picks look very typical to those of kid hood in the mid-west, mid century-the last century. My brothers and I were never fond of shoveling snow either.
ReplyDeleteThere wasn't much snow growing up in the Bay Area so it's still a novelty for me. But I don't want to get used to it and might seek a warmer climate for retirement.
ReplyDeleteI think March is late enough to have snow (if we have to have it in spring at all!). Pretty tree!
ReplyDeleteOddball, are you kidding me? We've had blizzards in April at least twice in the twenty years I've been living in Prescott. It melts the next day, but still. Old timers have told me that once or twice snow hung around in big piles till June.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, with the way things are going, maybe not so frequent anymore.
I liked your Guadalara pix. My wife and I were there in February.
But I live in Prescott Valley, the banana belt of north central Arizona!
DeleteYou should email me and tell me about your Guadalajara trip.
I'm basking in the relative warmth (48f) and rain of Seattle, but back in MT it's currently snowing. For the last several years our last snowfall has been in the first two weeks of June. It doesn't stick, but it's there until mid morning.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful tree and I'm right there with you on the snowball thing. Needless to say, I love living in Arizona.
ReplyDelete