Spring is springing?

Just a short one now, following the mammoth writing effort of this morning! I wasn't going to write anything at all for a little while, but, important writings call for effort, and today was officially my first blossom sighting of the year :)

Blossom is one of my favourite favourite things, which I always forget about until the beginning of Spring comes around and I first start to see it again and I remember that I love it almost as much as I love the burnished reds and yellows of autumn leaves.

I would like to point out, before you even see the photo, that this is my first blossom of the year. It is very tiny, and very new, and was perched too high up on a tree for my (not tiny) reach to get a decent picture with a steady hand. Nonetheless, evidence, I felt, was required, and so I endeavoured to find a blossom that was at least sort of in reach. It was, of course, the last tree in the Sainsburies car park which I checked. And was, of course, right beside a car with a family just getting out of it, who looked at my ecstatic face with no small amount of fear...

Anyway, here it is. I honestly don't know what species it is, for which I am truly sorry; looking it up has so far proved fruitless (potential pun intended) partially because, as I've mentioned, it's very tiny and the photo is very bad, and secondly because of the lack of arboreal knowledge I've lamented in past posts. My apologies also for the darkness of the photo, it wasn't particularly nice weather and was pretty late in the day. Apologies over; here it is.

If anyone can tell me what species it is by this truly terrible picture which does the joy I felt no justice at all, I will be forever grateful!

So, tiny and new and struggling against the wind in a Sainsburies car park, here it is, my first blossom of the year, Pioneer of Spring.

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