CHERRY BLOSSOM AND TULIPS

Having deprived you all yesterday of a photograph of bluebells, I decided to treat you today to the sight of the beautiful flowering cherry trees that line this avenue in one of our local parks, the Town Gardens, built in the early 1900s on the site of a former Purbeck limestone quarry.  It's just a shame the sun wasn't shining today!

These wonderful Victorian gardens, with many formal flower beds and a beautiful rose garden, provide a peaceful oasis for those passing through or choosing to sit on one of the many seats to eat their lunch.  Every spring the cherry trees are a riot of colour and delight so many people, thanks to the dedicated Council gardeners - with the formal beds around them full of tulips, primulas, pansies and wallflowers.

It is a joy to walk along this avenue of trees and not only to see the beautiful blooms, but also to smell them and all the other flowers too.

I must confess, though, that I don't think this is the place to play football and did mention this to a man playing football with a young lad.  There are many other areas in this park where one could play, and although he told me he was trying to keep away from the flowers, I noticed that whilst we were there, they weren't always that successful. 

I didn't know this, but apparently, in 1912 thousands gathered in the  Town Gardens for a benefit concert for the Titanic victims' families.  

Delving deeper, I found that two of the passengers on the Titanic lived in our town.  A Mr. Benjamin Howard, aged 63, was born in Oldham, but was for many years foreman in the Bolt Shop of the Great Western Railway Works, and his wife, Ellen Truelove Howard (nee Arman), aged 60, who was born in Rodbourne, a parish of the town.  They had two single sons who lived in America and were on their way to visit them at the time of the disaster.  

Amazing what we can learn - and all this just from taking a photograph of beautiful cherry blossom!

Life without love 
     is like a tree 
          without blossoms 
               or fruit 
Khalil Gibran