By James Edwin Campbell
When the fruit trees bloom,
Pink of peach and white of plum,
And the pear-trees' cones of snow
In the old back orchard blow —
Planted fifty years ago!
And the cherries' long white row
Gives the sweetest prophecy
Of the banquet that will be,
When the suns and winds of June
Shall have kissed to fruit the bloom —
Then Falstaffian bumble-bees
Drain the blossoms to the lees
When the fruit trees bloom.
When the fruit trees bloom,
Pink the apple, white the plum,
Underneath the knotted boughs
I am holding full carouse;
Drunken with the wine that drips
Downward from each blossom's lips,
While the catbird's strident calls
Seem the laugh of bacchanals
Ringing through these winy halls;
Serenaded by the bees,
Lullabies in minor keys,
Soon I sink in drunken drowse,
When the fruit trees bloom.
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Sunday was warmer than Saturday, but we acknowledged by afternoon (when both the county and state started sending out dire warnings) that we had better change our plans to go to Virginia on Monday and Tuesday -- not because most of Virginia is under threat of snow, since it sounds like only Leesburg may get the 4-8 inches forecast here, but because we have to get home to pick up Maddy from the airport and didn't want to risk being caught in a snow emergency on Tuesday evening. So we postponed our Monday plans, then went to Hillwood to enjoy the sunshine. The gardens have an exhibition of Philip Haas's sculptures based on Giuseppe Arcimboldo's botanical paintings, which we'd seen in 2011 at the National Gallery of Art, and the Dacha has an exhibit on watercolor portraits from the private collection of diplomat Henry Middleton during his time in Russia, but we were distracted by all the flowers that will likely be gone after Tuesday. We swung through Kenwood where at least the cherry blossoms haven't started to open, so they may still bloom.
Since it was Purim, my mother got chocolate hamantaschen for us, and I had one more birthday present to give her, so we went over to my parents' house and ended up having leftovers for dinner while watching the end of the NCAA basktball tournament announcement show (Maryland was in the very last bracket named, but the Terps are a sixth seed set to play Xavier in Orlando next week). We came home for our crowded Sunday night TV schedule -- Once Upon a Time, which was all about the men this week and suffered from way too little Regina and no Emma, then Madam Secretary, which was nicely timely and didn't oversimplify the distress of sexual harassment even for a powerful woman who knows she can defend herself and will be supported completely by her employers and family -- I wish Elizabeth had found a way to warn other women about the predatory foreign president even if she didn't want to talk about her own experiences for a number of reasons -- then Elementary where I was glad to see Kitty again.
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