Hanami – Austrian Style

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (115.9mm, f/8, 1/90 sec, ISO200)

Hanami – the bloom of the cherry blossom in Japan. Here’s how the bloom of the cherry blossom in Austria can look like. No wonder the Japanese version is more popular.

I think I have mentioned the weather in my blog a couple of times already. But the reason is simple. It keeps getting weirder. This year we had the coldest January in 30 years. February was warm and March even warmer. Just before we got used to short sleeves winter came black last Wednesday.

Apple iPhone 6 Plus (4.15mm, f/2.2, 1/100 sec, ISO32)
Apple iPhone 6 Plus (4.15mm, f/2.2, 1/200 sec, ISO32)

The tricky thing was that most people already changed to summer tires. As a result my way back home took 1.5 hours instead of 20 minutes. But I was lucky. Some people had to sleep in a public school close to the highway because they could not reach their homes because two major highways were closed in both direction.

When I finally arrived I immediately started to rescue the trees in my backyard. I started with the ones facing the road to ensure that cars were able to pass then continued with the trees inside my garden. The snow was extremely wet and heavy. I didn’t manage to get it off the higher branches so I discovered some damage after the snow was gone.

Apple iPhone 6 Plus (4.15mm, f/2.2, 1/100 sec, ISO32)
Apple iPhone 6 Plus (4.15mm, f/2.2, 1/100 sec, ISO40)
Apple iPhone 6 Plus (4.15mm, f/2.2, 1/340 sec, ISO125)

After I was done with the trees I removed the snow from our balcony, hand rail and the garden furniture but it continued to snow so next morning my balcony was again covered in snow. The iPhone image above shows the balcony in the morning again covered with snow. The tree in the middle of the picture is an old sour cherry tree. As you can see I only managed to snow off the lower branches.

Below my wife’s car in the morning. She was sick that week so there was no need to work on that. Maybe we should consider a carport?

Apple iPhone 6 Plus (4.15mm, f/2.2, 1/530 sec, ISO32)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (55mm, f/8, 1/60 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (181.1mm, f/4.7, 1/200 sec, ISO320)

Some close ups of our apple tree. Also already in full bloom just like the cherry trees. Of course it hurts to see our trees like that but it is a real tragedy for all the fruit farmers in Austria. And it’s the second year it happened. Last year the late frost caused them a damage of more than 200 Million Euro.

The weather has become very unpredictable.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (55mm, f/4.5, 1/200 sec, ISO250)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (200mm, f/4.8, 1/200 sec, ISO400)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/5, 1/350 sec, ISO200)

The last two last images were taken on Friday morning. Two days after winter came back. The snow started to melt away almost as quickly as it came but it was still too cold for this time of the year.

Winter came late this year again and it seems that spring will come even later. I wonder if I will see some warm days before I go on my next business trip to Asia.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/5, 1/200 sec, ISO200)