The fun, family festival celebrating Vancouver's cherry blossoms is not in full force this year as the organisers have gone over to Japan to view their beautiful blossoms and bring back new inspiration for next year's event. The website is still up and running and I see that they are training for Cherry Scouts on Mar 2nd at Vandusen.

From the website www.vcbf.ca

A training session for Cherry Scouts will be held:

Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 7pm
Cedar Room
VanDusen Botanical Garden
37th and Oak
Vancouver, BC.

This session is primarily for new scouts. You will learn about the role of the scouts in finding and sharing information about the blooming of our ornamental cherries. The focus of the evening will be on how to report your discoveries. There will also be a slide show of pretty pictures, with hints on how to recognize the various cultivars.

To register, contact Wendy Cutler, Scout Coordinator at email  wcutler [at] vcbf [dot] ca

They have a great listing of festival favourites  that show the location of celebrated cherry blossoms and indicate their expected flowering period. As we have all witnessed in our travels around Vancouvers' designed garden spaces there are many varieties flowering now, two months early, and most of the display is happening all at once. Seize the day and get out on your bike armed with a blanket and a thermos of something warm (sake?) to enjoy the blossoms from underneath of a cherry trees pretty pink skirt.