Planning those blossoms

Who said anything about there not being many blossoms for the festival this year?

Just look at the photograph, which was taken Thursday at Central City Park.

I have on my "blossom" tie. I've been showing it to folks all week.

And that's the famous "Miss Blossom,'' also known as Florence Wood.

Today is March 23. It's the birthday of Mr. William Fickling Sr., who died in 1986. But we celebrate his birthday every Cherry Blossom Festival with a cake in Third Street Park at lunchtime.

This is the 25th festival, the silver anniversary, and it was always started to coincide with Mr. Fickling's birthday. It started out as a weekend event. Now it's a 10-day festival that always includes two weekends. That's why this year's festival began a week ago today.

But given the continued stubborness of the cherry trees, perhaps it would have been better to have started this year's festival today. I realize you can't predict such things, and Mother Nature is very unpredictable.

But even if the blossoms had come out early, wouldn't it be better for the trees to have already bloomed and at least have leaves on them to look like dead, bare trees all week?

Timing is everything.

Just a thought.