Sakura Schedule: Desk Clock

A cherry tree that knows what day it is. Real sun, real moon, real weather, and a calm clock for your desk or bedside. Free, with no account and no tracking.

Sakura Schedule turns an iPad into a window onto a single cherry tree.

It is not a video of a cherry tree. It is a cherry tree that knows what day it is. The blossom opens when the cherries near you open, and falls when they fall. The sky is lit by the real sun, from where you actually are. The moon carries tonight's real phase. When it rains outside, it rains on the tree.

Stand it on a shelf, a counter or a desk, and it keeps the time.

THE TREE • Grown from numbers rather than modelled, so it is never quite the same tree twice • Five silhouettes taken from real cultivars: the spreading Somei-yoshino, the weeping Shidarezakura, the vase-shaped Kanzan, an old thick-trunked specimen, and the wild mountain cherry • A new one each morning, arriving at three so it is never swapped while you are watching — or choose one and keep it • Bare in winter, in leaf through summer, gold and red in autumn, and in bloom for its fortnight in spring • Petals let go, drift on the wind, and gather on the ground beneath it • Turn it with a finger, or leave it exactly where you put it

THE SKY • The sun's real position for your town, all day — first light, noon, the long gold hour, dusk, dark • Tonight's real moon phase, riding behind the branches • Live conditions: cloud, rain, snow and fog, with the wind that moves the canopy • Fireflies on warm, still summer nights • A stone lantern that lights at dusk and gutters in a draught

THE CLOCK • Large, quiet, and readable from across a room • 12- or 24-hour, or whatever your iPad already decided • Two typefaces • Dims itself after dark, and can black out completely overnight for a bedroom • Never sleeps, so there is always something to glance at

YOUR DAY A one-time purchase. No subscription.

Connect Calendar and Reminders and today's schedule appears beneath the tree, then puts itself away again. Choose which calendars and lists to show, and how far ahead to look. Nothing is ever invented — without access the cards are simply empty, because a display on a kitchen counter must never show anyone an appointment that is not real.

The free app is a whole thing and finished as it stands: the tree, the sky, the weather and the clock.

PRIVACY Your calendar and reminders are read on the device and never leave it. There is no account, no sign-in, no tracking and no analytics. Your location is a town name you type in, used to place the sun and to ask for the forecast.

Weather data provided by Apple Weather.