Spring

 

Spring Day is celebrated in South Africa on the first of September. It is not a public holiday, but rather a bit like Valentine's Day. I did look forward to spring after so many months of winter. Spring in the south of the southern hemisphere is completely different from Europe. You get up one day and suddenly discover blossoms on trees everywhere and it seems like it is full summer only a week later. Sometimes.

Colleagues in Pretoria and friends in Bloemfontein mentioned very hot days, and then freezing winter temperatures again. Those fluctuations are not abnormal. But here, in the south, where it never gets very cold even in winter, the grey coolness just lingered. Lots of wind, lots of rain.

Then, all of a sudden, I saw that splash of colour appear. On the way to work: a tree with bright yellow blossoms and a bit later, the purple shade of the jacarandas as well. What is perhaps even more beautiful is the effect when that purple opulence begins to fall. A road or playground in a park then takes on a purple carpet. Gorgeous!

But what is really evidence of spring to me, is the scent of jasmine. Strong and intense, fresh and pungent. Often you can smell the plant even before you see it. How wonderful when you pick up this aroma while jogging. Not even the highest walls can hold back such fragrance.