Waning Pink

 

3/31/22 Sunset Hill neighborhood

3/31/22 Sunset Hill cherry tree

The Sunset Hills cherry trees, favorites on my annual petal-peeping tour, caught me by surprise. When I went to check on them on March 21, their buds were tightly closed. They typically peak in the first week of April, so I assumed they still had a way to go. Exactly a week later, though, a friend reported that they were at peak! I went to see them on March 29 on my way home from sketching Dibble Avenue Northwest, but didn’t have time to sketch them then. We had some rain after that, and by the time I got over there again on March 31, they were well past peak – piles of pink petals on the pavement. I made a mental note to check on them more frequently next year.

Instead of trying to capture a street view, I focused on a couple of trunks. At Sunset Hill, I do tend to sketch more tree portraits than street views because these are among the oldest cherries I visit each year. More than 80 years old, the one above is the same tree I drew from a photo for a class assignment a year ago. The reference photo I had used was taken from the side that shows the tree’s fantastic roots wrapped around its trunk. This sketch is from the opposite side, where slender, blossomed tendrils are trying to catch up with majestic branches.

In the second sketch, I caught a younger tree with daffodils behind it.

The street wasn’t quite as pink and fluffy as I’ve sketched it in the past, but the trees are still my favorites.

The Sunset Hill cherry trees at their peak on 3/29/22

As many petals on the ground as on the branches.