Life is too short not to stop, back up and take a picture of a spectacular jacaranda.

So that’s what I did. It is the time jacarandas bloom in San Diego and they are glorious. Unremarkable trees around the city catch my attention in May and June when their gnarled trunks and branches erupt with lavender flowers and then over weeks rain down a carpet of loveliness.

Here’s a jacaranda tree near my home. On my afternoon walk I stopped to take it in—purple and fern-like leaves against a incomparable blue sky.

As a child my dad drove to Coronado Island from our home in San Clemente. He wanted to show us the jacaranda trees that formed a long arch over one of the streets. Our visit was in the early 1960’s and I think it might have been C Street in Coronado. Perhaps he remembered the jacarandas from the time he was stationed in San Diego during WWII. Or maybe he recalled jacarandas in Los Angeles, his hometown. Fifty years later only some of those trees remain but my memory endures.

See more photos of jacarandas around San Diego here. Read about jacarandas in South Africa here.

Purple Droplets of Rain

The soft sound of rain
Exquisite purple droplets T
he jacaranda tree weeps
Wet purple kisses
A welcome shower of love
Royal messengers of Spring

Eileen Manassian  

Jacaranda Tree
Roots out of dirt - still dragons
Splendor in purple

Iolanda Scripca