About this time of year, when the days are slowly getting longer, I used to look forward to the plum blossoms coming into bloom. During this season, snow still falls in the mountains, we'd eat nabe under the kotatsu table, and the plum blossoms appearance would encourage us that in a few months hanami and the release from the bitter cold would be upon us.
In Pacific Grove, we have no orchards of plum or cherry blossoms. Instead we have succulents. Right now, like the plums of Japan, our massive aloe plants are flowering up and down my stretch of coast. Thankfully, it is not cold enough to make using a heater necessary (though we still turn in on occasionally).
In the near future, our smaller variant of ice plant will send up a carpet of purple flowers. To me, it's not as beautiful or as fun as cherry blossom viewing, but it is still very nice. It would be fun to set up a picnic and invite friends and family out to drink amidst the blossoms, but we would probably be busted by the police pretty quickly.
These heavy rains have coaxed the grasses to reach for the sky and climb over the dead, brown stalks and leaves of last year. It shouldn't be too long until the flowers start to come out.
Hey Sonic - Glad to see you are back at it. I will soon be on vacation myself, in HK, Macao and Puerta Galera, Philippines. Can't wait to do some WW2 wreck diving. Keep up the great posts.