A couple days ago, my husband and I invited my parents, and we went to a park to see Japanese plum blossoms. When I visited there with my husband a month ago, the trees were covered in buds. This time, they were in full bloom!

Since I took lots of photos, I'd love to share them with you.

Japanese plums are called "ume" in Japanese. After the flowers bloom, ume trees produce fruit, and we make "umeboshi" (pickled plums) from them. Since I make umeboshi every year, I'll share them sometime with you.

That day was still cold and the rain was on and off. Even so, my dad brought his heavy camera and enjoyed taking photos.

The picture below shows pink ume blossoms, which look alike cherry blossoms.

Since this tree below looks a willow, it's called "shidareume"(weeping ume) in Japanese. I love this type of ume tree, but unfortunately, we were a bit early. So, they weren't blooming yet.

Ume blossoms come in a variety of colors, including soft pink, vibrant pink, ivory, and white.

The picture below shows deep pink ume blossoms, and they are my favorite! I think the vivid pink colors are the best among ume blossoms.

While enjoying taking photos and chitchatting with my mom, I saw mejiro (warbling white-eye) moving around on a tree! I tried to capture it on camera. Can you see the small yellow-green bird in the picture below? That's called mejiro in Japanese. Since it kept hopping from flower to flower without stopping, it was hard to get a good shot with my phone’s built-in camera. However, my dad was carrying a professional camera, and it seemed easy for him. He followed the bird and took lots of photos. Since he prefers using an analog camera, I'm looking forward to seeing how his pictures turn out. He even mentioned that he spotted a pair of mejiro and captured them together.

I'm so glad my parents enjoyed viewing plum blossoms, and we had a great time together. I'd love to paint mejiro on a porcelain tile soon.

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