Cherry Trees in Bloom 2017

Every year around this time, Torontonians go on "blossom watch", waiting for the sakura cherry trees to bloom in High Park.  I've never actually been to High Park during this time but I have heard how crowded it can be, both with people and traffic.

Two or three days ago, local sources reported the first blossoms had made their appearance and that this weekend would be good for viewing, with a warm, dry, sunny forecast.  This website has an interesting chart showing the peak bloom dates for years past.  April 24-25 (i.e. tomorrow and Tuesday) is predicted to be the height of this year's season.

My friend Cheryl and I decided we wanted to see cherry blossoms but avoid the crowds, so we headed off early this Sunday morning to look for a lesser known and hopefully less crowded location in Etobicoke. Based on the advice of this blog post, we headed off to Broadacres Park, allegedly the home of 100 cherry trees.  We crossed a very soggy soccer field and a small creek to find a grand total of ...two (2) cherry small trees in bloom!

We found a stand of about 15-20 trees in the southwest corner of the park that have the beginnings of some buds but no way to tell if they are sakura trees or not.  All in all, it was a disappointment.

However, as we left the park, we drove past Etobicoke Civic Centre (located at Burnhamthorpe and The West Mall) and noticed six blooming trees in front of the building, glistening in the sun.  We turned the car around and headed to their parking lot, where we were the only visitors.

We proceeded to snap photos and inhale the gentle aroma of the cherry blossoms.

Here is Cheryl, focused in on the blooms.

The buds are a soft rose shade, while the open blooms are white.

The sky above was so blue, without a cloud in sight.

Here's a photo of Cheryl and me under one of the trees, flushed with success at having found this well kept secret location and taken our share of photos!

Day 20/100 - #100dayproject