In this part of the world, spring is often associated with cleaning one’s place after the long winter months. First and foremost, spring is however associated with nature’s revival: the weather is usually warmer, buds and flowers can be seen everywhere and these joyous little creatures with wings can be heard chirping in the trees. In other words, one can enjoy a true feast of colours and sounds.
Yesterday we decided to celebrate this particularly beautiful time of the year with a visit to a wood which is usually the home of daffodils from late March until mid-April. Unfortunately, we were a little late and these yellow flowers (narcissus pseudonarcissus is their Latin name) were past their prime – most were wilted – and therefore there were no beautiful carpets of intense yellow to be seen anywhere.
Nevertheless, the trip was totally worthwhile in that the weather was so nice that it was a real pleasure to walk through this wood. We also got to do a little foraging (dandelions whose ‘heads’ I ate fried with some flour and whose leaves I ate as garnish added to the fried rice my wife kindly prepared for us) and I was able to enjoy a kind of quasi immemorial ‘presence’, that of the people who inhabited the area centuries and centuries ago…