Inside the Writing Life: It’s Plum Blossom Time

Plum is among the earliest blossoms in New Zealand’s temperate climate, appearing at the end of winter and heralding the imminent arrival of spring proper — and that, dear readers, is pretty much now.

It’s very similar in Japan, I understand, with ume-matsuri, the celebration of plum blossom’s appearance, occurring from around 20 February through early March — and acting as harbinger for the eagerly awaited (and much more famous) sakura, the cherry blossom.

(Japan’s late winter/early spring plum blossom period is the mirror-reverse of our Southern Hemisphere, with the flowers commencing round 20 August through to early September.)

Seasonality is an important element in my worldbuilding, although the Wall of Night environment is so harsh the seasons are not as clearly defined as further into Haarth and its Southern Realms.

So the seasonal aspect in the worldbuilding is most marked in The Gathering of the Lost, where the action shifts from the River to Emer, then finally into Southern Aralorn, on the border with Jhaine.

So although I do not specifically say so, the “first fragile blossoms” that are hurled to the ground as the heralds begin their journey from Terebanth to Ij, at the very beginning of Gathering, are plum blossoms.

I was reminded of that opening scene last week when my walk took me down a river path lined with wild plum trees.

Accordingly, I share the photos – and in the spirit of the Group Haarth quote series, the passage from Gathering:

“Spring came to the River in a flurry of blustering winds and driving rain that turned the local roads into quagmires and hurled the first fragile blossoms to the ground. Two heralds were blown out of the city of Terebanth with the weather and turned east toward Ij, following the great Main Road that had endured since the days of the Old Empire.”

~ from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 1 – The Road To Ij