Almond blossom sky

On the way home from the supermarket on Saturday , I noticed a beautiful young tree laden with white blossom. [I think it was a sweet almond tree.]


Honey bees were loving the pollen -this is one coming in to land on a flower.



A honey bee is just visible burrowing into the blossom here. Its a pity the branches weren't lower, I had to use the zoom and hold the camera above my head to get these shots.



The blue sky was dappled with a thin cloud layer, almost like it had been dusted with icing sugar.


Something was nagging me about the unusual dappled blue sky and white blossom combination , but I didn't work out what it till later. It turned out that the photos were incredibly reminiscent of a Vincent Van Gogh painting called Branches with Almond Blossom [Amandelbloesem in Dutch]

Van Gogh painted the almond blossom in February 1890 while living in the south of France. The painting celebrates the coming of spring and the birth of his nephew also called Vincent. Ironically, Van Gogh's own life was near its end -he died a few months later that year.

Tags: photos, blossom, almond blossom, honey bee, spring