Weekend: Cherry trees and tulips

We had a few people over Friday night, and I was hoping that the row of Kwanzan cherry trees in my yard would be blooming by then. They were so, so close. A few blossoms had opened, but they really burst out by Sunday morning. Oh well — they are so beautiful now (see picture with this post). I have been finding reasons to go outside and just stand under these pink trees!

I didn’t really feel like cooking for the Friday gathering but it turns out that Whole Foods catering is quite good, especially for things like appetizer trays. You just order ahead (like 72 hours I believe) and pick it up at your local store. So easy! And then I had great leftovers like pate and shrimp the next day.

This weekend featured a lot of flowers. On Saturday, my husband and I walked around Chanticleer gardens during the 16-year-old’s voice lesson. Then we came and listened to him for the last 10 minutes, which was fun. Chanticleer had lots of tulips and daffodils out. Now that we are members, we’ll probably go back frequently to see it (though I have to say, I really like fall at that garden – since the colorful trees make such a gorgeous backdrop for flowers…).

Sunday we went to Holland Ridge Farms in New Jersey. While I was happy to have a family adventure (well, almost total family adventure, the 16-year-old decided not to go…), this was not the world’s lowest stress bit of floral tourism.

This issue was that my husband was trying to catch a 5:30 flight, so the plan was to be home by 4:00 so he could drive to the airport (already tight, though doable if there’s limited traffic). But he decided to bring his suitcase just in case…or at least planned to, but left it on the porch, which he remembered 10 minutes down the road. So we had to turn around to get it, cutting into the time (we had left at around 11:40, but then wound up leaving for real closer to noon).

We got there in just a little over an hour and parked and got in easily. So far, so good. Even the Cousins Maine Lobster truck line — a key reason the 14-year-old consented to go — was only 20 minutes! We picked a few buckets full of tulips, and even the 9-year-old, who’d complained bitterly about going, seemed to have moments of fun. We got to the car at 2:45, so theoretically we could have been home 3:45 … but I guess everyone else decided to leave at the same time too. We were stuck in traffic getting out of the parking lot for about 30 minutes.

So…then we had to regroup and head directly to the airport to drop my husband off. He got there an hour before the flight, but it was kind of tense the whole trip — especially since we got stuck in another jam about 10 minutes from the airport because I think a Phillies game was letting out at the same time…? And then I had to drive home 45 minutes in traffic from the airport with kids who were already tired and just wanted to be done with this.

So I was not thrilled about the whole thing, but I’m trying to focus on the pretty flowers. The weather was perfect. I had my first Maine Root blueberry soda of the season. Hopefully the first of many! It seems you can order them from Amazon/Whole Foods so maybe those will be alternated with the strawberry acai lemonade refreshers from Starbucks.

I think we’ll hit Longwood Gardens next weekend, to complete the flower tour…And maybe I’ll go work in my yard today…