Monday, April 16, 2007

Spring is bright yellow

Well, now I have been in Korea a full 3 weeks. I hadn't expected the weather to be as cool as it has been, but my sister says they've had a strange winter (as did Canadians) and the temperature has been unseasonably low so far. One good thing is the yellow sand from the Gobi desert hasn't been so bad (I'd worried a little). Still, the spring flowers have all bloomed, which caused me much delight. I hadn't realized how little flowering happens in spring in Canada. In Korea, I see flowering trees everywhere I go! At first, I was so surprised to see trees covered with only flowers - no green buds or leaves, just flowers all over:
But now, I feel a bit disappointed to see the trees are starting to bud, since it must mean the spring flowering season is passing.

In Canada, the colour of "Spring" (i.e. the two weeks between winter and summer) is the green of new leaves; nevertheless, it was bright yellow that always made me think of spring. This is because when I was growing up in Korea, the surest and most distinct sign of the retreat of winter was the appearance of the yellow flowers cascading down in this photo: I always thought it strange that you don't see these in Canada. I don't even know what they're called in English (in Korean they're called "genari" - that's a hard "g" at the beginning). They're not the prettiest flowers, but I always liked them; they look so happy and...yellow. They make me think of stars. And who doesn't like something that marks the coming of spring?