Morning, Petal. Along with ‘cherub’, ‘blossom’ and ‘dolly’ (though the... (Qaa Er Rîm, Béqaa, Lebanon)
Morning, Petal. Along with ‘cherub’, ‘blossom’ and ‘dolly’ (though the latter is more of southern thing), the use of the word ‘petal’ as an appellation for people is one of my favourite northern English-isms. It reminds me a little of the way Levantine Arabs reply to the morning greeting of sabah al-kheir (good morning) not just with a standard sabah al-noor (morning of light) but also with a more cheery sabah al-ward (rose) or sabah al-full (flower). In the English greeting, the ‘petal’ refers to the person not the morning and it can be used in both a loving and a sarcastic fashion, for a ‘petal’ is someone who is either precious and cherished or someone who is excessively delicate and affected. As you can tell from their profusion, the petals in this photo may be delicate but they are far from fragile. They are (I think) cherry blossom, not the lush pink sakura of Japan, most of which are purely ornamental but rather the abundantly fruiting cherry of Lebanon, a workhorse of a tree that delivers dark, juicy and tart-sweet berries by the thousand. What both varieties have in common is their ability to produce what the Japanese call hanafubuki (花吹雪) or ‘flower blizzard’, clouds of pinky-white petals that swirl off the trees in the breeze, fluttering to the ground like flakes of snow. In parts of Japan, where acres of sakura have been planted purely for show, the hanafubuki can be so intense that you find yourself shivering involuntarily. While the ornamentals don’t produce edible fruit, the blossoms and leaves are pickled and eaten. I’m not sure anyone pickles cherry blossom in Lebanon, but then these flowers produce fruit, so that would be a waste....
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