Friday, April 04, 2014

yellow easter bonnets


Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Obviously, ol' A.E. Housman never treked the Eastertide woodland ride in these parts.  Cherry boughs are as rare as business tax cuts in Mexico these days.  At least, where I live.

Residents of Mexico City are prone to go all lilac in their prose when they talk about their jacaranda trees.  And their purple-flowered trees are fine -- in their Anne of Green Gables way.

But, if you want show-stopping color, visit our village as it prepares to put on its best for Easter.  The primavera are blasting off fluorescent bursts of yellow against our spring blue skies.

I am using "spring" rather loosely in that sentence.  Usually, the winter months are the most pleasant time to visit our seashore tourist trap.  After a punishing summer of heat and humidity, we look forward to cooler and drier weather from Christmas on.

Not so, this year.  Here and there, the temperature would dip -- especially at night (and that is always a welcome relief).  Even though I have not seen the official numbers, our winter seemed to be unseasonably warm.  Almost miserly hot compared with the snows that disciplined much of the Great White North this winter.

That is why it seems a bit contradictory that our temperatures are starting to rise.  Almost as if someone tossed a bit more oil into the furnace. 

No, that analogy just won't do.  More like the towel-less fat guy in your club who would shuffle into the sauna with its well-balanced heat -- and then dump a gallon of water on the hot rocks.

Knowing all that, that the heat is upon us, it is a great season to pause and look at what the spring is bringing us.  And to remember the joys that will be celebrated as a result of the Messiah's resurrection.

All told beautifully through the Eastertide blooms of the primavera.

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