Vasant aayi re!

It’s spring season here in NZ. Glorious vasant ritu. And my garden is suddenly abloom with flowers. It seems that almost overnight bulbs that were in hibernation through winter have worked their way up through the earth and burst into leaf and flower. Since this is my first spring in this house, it has all taken me by surprise, for now there are flowers where I didn’t expect flowers to bloom. Flowers of the kind I’ve never even seen before. Flowers that look they are wearing dainty designer skirts with petals that go upwards and through the gaps petals that go downwards. God must be one heck of a flower designer :))) The roses are not out yet, but the bushes are full of tender leaves and tiny buds, the promise of flowering clasped tight in their delicate petals.

The kowhai is in full bloom everywhere and when the yellow flowers drop they form a lovely yellow carpet on the grass beneath the tree. My ex-neighbour told me that the kowhais around her house bloom one after another. So the tuis when they have finished feasting on the flowers of one, their beaks tucked deep into the flowers, they go on to the next and then the next. Wow! What wonderful synchronisation! How God takes care of all His creations :)))

The birds are having a busy time, feasting on berries, collecting twigs for nests. They are all atwitter among the branches, calling out to one another, exchanging notes, I like to believe, on food gathering and nest building :))) My neighbour has a brood of 4-5 hens and when they cluck-cluck, it instantly transports me to Kerala :))) Bright flowers everywhere nodding in the breeze, the sun warm on the grass, the birds busy among the trees, the sky blue and clouds white, the day long and languorous, the night soft and gentle, yes, Spring has claimed my heart and soothed my soul.


The trees are covered with young leaves fluttering merrily in the breeze. Just a few weeks ago they had been bare, raising their bare limbs to the winter sky. In summer their green will darken and when autumn comes, turn golden, yellow and orange and then drop off. The leaf doesn’t cling to the tree, the tree doesn’t grieve the leaf’s falling. When spring comes new leaves are born. And so the cycle of birth and death continues in perfect harmony. It reminds me that I must drop the old and the dead so that life continues to be renewed and refreshed everyday.

Yes, vasant ritu is a great teacher :)))