And since to look at things in bloom
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
As it happens I was living in the DC area when I was twenty. That spring I looked at the cherry blossoms, quietly reciting this poem to myself.
That was fifty years ago. This recent spring my son, who lives there, went to the Tidal basin and took some wonderful photographs. I don't seem able to post any of them, which is a genuine shame. The Tidal Basin at cherry blossom time is a wonder. My son took some amazing photos that I wish I could share.
But here's the best part.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
I have perhaps twenty years left to look at the cherry blossoms.
A few weeks ago my son, who lives in the DC area, went to the Tidal basin and took some wonderful photographs. Alas, they won't simply show up on this page, and you'll need to click on the absurdly lengthy url, but I hope you think it's worth it.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/P8L-dFZ1_b_IE-ivZxDrJmiqNC-vJOA2SkGN2-pOk1XHgkNm0pjACKccSX5X9J5F-Q4c7D-5RDFqXtN0d24WcVvnlpfBEZNIYQo6tzDqzW9sYtmwJOEi8LS9k1uqyZhVbBEfbfDv1P3GIKTCSYj6ow1-rkKK40paxw6C4pC-3v7-GgWkaEqJXyGajxG_G21DCkz6pcuYBanc01lKIimQ6ygy1aI8EJYQhfolBNfwCzo9C9_rJxWjsaAGib8fTLimFJ4XLw3xhR1Ei9TZ4RLnAyB2FJWFwXGYGdo5p2ZpbLnXHVknw_4IiO_F2FWg5cYwCdsfvqN7F5Ff3-4PKGAmMOdFb09rslrgrEdRSvMYUYSTkWJPbzutQCNRreyj0ASs858mdtwGk8r6QAJ53oCtjf9t_rKsGrPiTj7Ng1BNtp8HUA0GOJc6fKGEw4N3aP-d0s60gMISYE9mvMAB0pFVw9s2FV-BBjKWk61MUxAFwhrzyeWZRorIY6C5JkxbSu0oe1l-jObOXLRP9iGsWtQouAfgd2nPVNsNrUyKh5ZxZXilTeAgWYVRfu8EF1sNJ9cMiwM4vWPZ186SMx2A2RnHHJBUtEqq1IJ3q-vBLpBA0Zc_hxe0TROt_5yO5A5c6FiAba6UrqpJJ4iv_nrsMuVIM0YGsM5HBULCJtfr1MQ9JX9XjaXDY9fEt3930H1jTfhlyWtso013hJ49IImm-Ysvgrb3ww=w1288-h966-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/aL5qfEMvLyac0F98aHwsxi56e8pPgztHddE97_NkitpHE_PH33g9QvfVCnUSJY_AU3CA3jkVmKDh5m1A7VGFZJRNxX69OMMdsRWMgKcOSCh3aOgNwKXiAhc2dKTXPKi24Ogl_EFqPsYhmxhvWCzfB42nU7l_iY07-8KPt814Q7FKXYl7XoL8r7qsW3viMPCsy-GvcwPhGy9UReonP2907fZ-1YbCw8voziJ5P3ZvAKON4Yu1CiS-h-AKxPSS3SivrSid49N0hXUyLPlSgDFIN3Xi438qQayB-B1zLqxrmx6pg48ROGSQKGvQ4KcSLRqIGsJT7qK5dzz6cPrbW5DXcTyLVvmS3Kus7d4jOnqypXxdjb31EdakGaP2sAuMV2d47bs71IxjWuQKVU8nlnCHcM4EpbhyfFOJg629TNsW3VTKvZ_kRLK4IeXj-8d3pJVIRukWiR-4a7rwFmIr4ySak194ZjlxvqLv20vSlYPmDoEkg993kGt1NqS3cTFntrq1h_v0cucGFZP-FA8gfDoMaDUQj_fmBVXMgrISt_V64FdKjjRWzmXi1qVcJpaN_PLvjVkfQg25zsdkLR86yIoQMtnFGGGmm9LzEMqw63NU4h6K4k_Vg-SRX64zLK2cIl4tdDgRILn6fhJTAWqHAwRIHf22M-b7olkLaqMHu5-qLfFXV0edYIYqL3a-ZH86G8CmGQvk5LWDBBeJdH_5fglRsFZmug=w1288-h966-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xy8D24wxcOwa72YjxuVFoymIjTxYu5G8gfdwRJoW_ZeoMaMABP61WZQrbDSgEBrPiFHxoaE_EfC81Oq4GcS3svnFR4pvKR-5aJBNtvE1LhWJd7GcMX-WvF_GqjJpsfe1DmMW8la90sn1qkx-XkpwvbQgYAoMUiVebi_YbOKPGVBq7uRL2v-gFwXLpcoDqrpGtcG-TO-d1geErX7goPeNKB85G8ggolag4kYdyG4bKvZSXQMjgcPBUhSQJTFdCaSZaql0ZTCoXHVA2MWcCwEuTZIM9rDOkqwMf7JogfENv88UDkgYpqA6YuCfJuNoMhfsb8QD_0zIoF4qrGNZVmK4G2A3hRfnSPww9boqLxB1h15a4NB2GoClwWs41KCh0MtwZpz8rUKRxSzmWW0yEqKd1WmIoJ-wgQ2fx3Zlk764tce6rXk045Xt7q627ey2r_PARNUPBkIpjXw2cUrS8f-diPdgSzuFwc8V6seu4J3L1q708KimunrQW7MynkeQJNGLhRk_PEEP9tLnggt184OxH0GW8lyMXgJ7JAkbf-8OxPEhLg_6CraNVY67kPEszo6bX1zt5gZTtSjgvpYIQr9eOPmgtuZXraGutrZ45ba8xMWqr7Jhk20KiZM0Y3RWiB0CHICNdecBS0l2fRlgp4cFDrEqKZX81ZxC7x8ESziXi2cP1U_rZqO9Yuj_zrFrafJHa_2L-b_2_YkF2_QhhGjqeLI5qg=w1288-h966-no
= new reply since forum marked as read
I don't seem able to post a link to the many pictures he took, so these will have to do.
I recently bought stamps, don't use them as much anymore - and I chose these because I thought they were lovely - but the real thing is so much better!
I have a friend who is a stamp collector. I'll have to ask him if he has these. Thanks.
They gave me a book to pick out which ones I wanted and as soon as I saw these I stopped looking.
I have many times been happy to purchase stamps for him.
One time on a trip to Australia, I bought a whole bunch of stamps for him and then promptly left them behind somewhere. Fortunately for the two of us the people who found them were totally honest, or perhaps not stamp collectors and all was good.
In recent years when I am in other countries I am more than happy to buy stamps for him. He and I joke about buying stamps in Kansas for him, or Illinois, or any other state, as if the states issued their own stamps.
He also belongs to some kind of international post card club. So I happily buy postcards wherever I go, and he uses them for his club.
Aren't these kinds of things wonderful?
Your son's a great photographer!
He happens to be in a PhD program in astronomy, but I like to think that if the bottom falls out of the astronomy field, he could get a job as a photographer.
And I realize I know almost nothing about photography, but these pictures were all taken on his smart phone. Which I guess tells us a lot more about smart phones than about my son.
On the other hand, if you want to know things like the conditions of the early Universe in the microseconds after the Big Bang, he's your guy.
I constantly call him up and ask him questions about astronomy and cosmology and the like. I know that I often ask him questions about things he's already explained to me. I want to say that I have NEVER heard him roll his eyes at me. 
A couple of days ago I had a conversation with him about the recent information that the Universe may be younger and expanding faster than previously thought. According to My Son the Astronomer, it's a bit more complicated than that and probably a compromise will be reached. During that conversation he made reference to Standard Candles. Woah! I happen to own a collection of short stories by Jack McDevitt entitled "Standard Candles". And here I'd thought McDevitt had simply come up with a somewhat interesting title. What are the odds? Here's the definition of Standard Candles. A standard candle is a class of astrophysical objects, such as supernovae or variable stars, which have known luminosity due to some characteristic quality possessed by the entire class of objects. How cool is that?
I feel like I've had the grand tour!......... to you and your son.
