Cherry Jam April 7, 2006

Tidal Basin in Full Bloom. Photo by Mike Edson.

This is the time of year when Washington policy wonks, lobbyists, federal employees, and even elected officials put down their budget reports and poll results and head out to roll around in nature together. The occasion, of course, is the blooming of Washington’s famous cherry trees.

I went on my lunch-hour pilgrimage last Friday and both the weather and the view were spectacular. The first scents of spring were in the air and the day was graced with a warm breeze, blue sky, and acres and acres of billowy pink blossoms. By this week, of course, the temperature dropped to 40  degrees. Then a stiff twenty-five-mile-per-hour wind scattered the petals.  Then it rained. The parade marches down Constitution Avenue on Saturday the 8th, and who knows which kind of Washington weather will show up.

If you go, travel by Metro or on foot: the poor souls who came in cars last week were stuck in an immense blossom-flavored traffic jam.

Back at the office, I found this quirky little tidbit from our collection: a Joseph Cornell collage that includes an image of a little bird chasing a drifting cherry blossom. There’s a postage stamp at the bottom showing what looks like a mosquito about to do its business to your arm: perhaps a reminder that high summer is only a few months away?

• Cherry Blossoms, Washington, DC, Joseph Cornell, American Art,
  Smithsonian American Art Museum