Flowering plum trees on Presidents Day weekend

Life isn't fair. There, I've said it, it's on the table, out of the way. My apologies to those of you in the snowbound states, but I'm just reporting the facts here.

When I was a wee lad, some years before I arrived at UC Berkeley as a dewy-eyed Freshperson, I'd already heard rumor of a fellow who went by the name Pink Cloud. Often, legend had it, Pink Cloud could be found at a student co-op called Barrington Hall, a house of mythic debauchery. Pink Cloud, people said, was the man to see if you were after doses of lysergic acid diethylamide, a.k.a. LSD, a.k.a. acid, as in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Pink Cloud truly existed, it turned out. The man was no myth. I did my share of hanging out at Barrington Hall as the dew burned off, and Pink Cloud was still to be found there (though he and I never actually consummated a business transaction, so I can't speak authoritatively to that part of his legend).

He's still around. Matter of fact, The Daily Californian, UCB's student newspaper, quoted him in an article about a local ballot measure in early November of last year. Barrington Hall was shut down at the dawn of the 90s. Things had gotten pretty ugly there in those last half-dozen years or so.

What's not ugly in Berkeley is President's Day weekend, smack dab in the middle of a time of year when the plum and ornamental cherry trees burst into flower all over the city and campus.

Here's a sampling of what it looks like -- clouds of pink blossoms, clouds of white blossoms, in parking lots, out front of houses and churches, serving as a gentle scrim to a towering stand of redwood trees -- but without any claims as to the quality of my snapshots...

February's a great month to visit Berkeley, though not if you've got allergies. The acacia is in full-bloom too, which is also lovely ... unless the pollen makes you sniffle and sneeze.


Related posts on One Finger Typing:

April showers brought May flowers
On the bright side: an iris in someone's front yard
Flowery front yards in Berkeley