The countryside is ablaze with spring green and blossoms. Colors are everywhere. The greens are different from the darker shades of summer, not to mention the outrageous golden feast for the eyes in the fall.

Spring green is a yellow green, a light green, a sunshiny green. It is a transient color which lasts only until the leaves are fully open and matured. It is the color of departed winter, the color of hope and dreams. Against a shocking blue sky the effect is stunning. Breath-taking. We look forward, forgetting the privations of winter, the cold, the shoveling, the heavy clothes.

Each year that we survive the bleakness of winter we are rewarded with this reawakening of nature. First come the daffodils trumpeting their bold greeting to spring. Green grass prepares the way for golden dandelions. Once they arrive we know warm weather can’t be far away. Once again we have overcome the grey gremlins of winter and emerged victorious into the technicolor beauty of spring, with flowering trees and bushes bestrewing our way with pink and white petals, like a triumphal bridal procession.

Meantime skunk cabbage is growing a-pace, pussy-willow becomes soft and fluffy, willow branches first turn yellow then their leaves green. Birds return to the gardens of their birth, to build nests and continue the cycle of life, laying eggs and rearing their young.

People come out of hibernation. Sap in the trees is rising – as does its counterpart in people. We get enthusiastic about new projects, attempt to spring clean our lives, plan grandiose schedules for the balance of the year. We react to the ancient rhythms of nature.