If April showers bring May flowers, what do February flowers bring? Well, for me, a chance to explore Pomona’s campus and take lots of pictures (which, I must admit, is becoming a favorite pastime—you can find my fall pictures here). What prompted this flower-picture-taking extravaganza? Well, as I have mentioned, I am in the Pomona orchestra and so I frequent Thatcher. Just north of Thatcher are two trees, one with white flowers and one with white and pink flowers. These only recently started blooming and I noticed them one day coming back from Thatcher with a fellow musical friend. While my friend prefers the white flowered tree, I was drawn to the giant white and pink flowers of the other tree. At this point I didn’t even know what they were, but they were so beautiful. I have since discovered that this is a magnolia tree, and they are all over campus.
The same friend told me that all of the beautiful magnolias was one of the things she liked about Pomona before coming here, but truth be told I hadn’t ever really noticed them before. I guess this just goes to show how we can be in a place for almost four years and still discover new things about it if we just open our eyes and pay attention. Anyway, the Thatcher magnolia tree discovery prompted a kind of scavenger hunt, sending me all around campus to see where else they might be hiding. As it turns out, they might be hiding (in plain sight) on many parts of campus, and once you start seeking out a particular thing it’s hard to un-see it, so now I notice magnolias all over. I guess our landscaping team really likes them, too, or maybe they do well in a Southern California climate. In any case, the results of the scavenger hunt are below!
