Cherry trees

Among my favorite things about the month of May are cherry trees. I love all types - white, pink, weeping - they're all beautiful.

For seven years I worked at the Presbyterian Church and it was a joy to arrive every morning when the big cheery tree there was in bloom. Even when it began to lose its blossoms it was lovely because the ground beneath it would be covered with a carpet of pink that I had to walk across to get to my office. Some people found it annoying because those blossoms would get dragged in with every foot that crossed the threshold, but I loved that puddle of pink that completely surrounded the tree - an oasis in the midst of the green grass all around.

Quite a few years ago I bought a pink weeping cherry for our yard and I hope that it will outlive me long enough to become a huge landmark that people look for when they drive down our street. Two years ago when my mother died we all chipped in and bought a small white weeping cherry to be planted in the field across from her house. It's blooming right now and makes me smile to think how she would have enjoyed seeing it from her front windows.

And then there are the magnificent specimens that dot the landscape around town. There's one in the old cottage colony on the right as you drive out of town, another in the yard of one of the mansions near the ocean, and of course the wonderful rows that line Montauk Highway at Hren's Nursery. I remember when they were planted and now they're so big and beautiful. I make a point of driving to Amagansett just to see them when I know they're out.

Life is full of such little pleasures if we care to see them. The danger is in being so tied up in our thoughts that we fail to notice the things we drive by every day. It really is about stopping to "smell the roses" as they say, or at the very least, slowing down to look at the cherry trees!

I hope I never forget that...