SPRING AWAKENING

Do you ever suddenly notice the beauty around you? It would appear that Spring has cast its spell where I live, bringing a sudden burst of bloom that I had been oblivious to just a few days ago. This morning, on my way to work, I smelt fragrant jasmine making its way across my cement city. Jasmine always makes me think of warm days and open-aired cinema screenings under the stars.

There’s no holding back the season now that Spring is knocking with all it's breathtaking beauty. Indeed, it's my favorite time of the year. There’s nothing like a dash of colour to brighten up our gloomy grey lives.

Sorry, I had to add that about the “gloomy grey lives”. Why do I always need to add my own bit of rot, skepticism and darkness to counter the freshness of what is beautiful?

* Claude Monet’s “Le Printemps” (Springtime) is dated 1872 and features his first wife, Camille, seated on the lawn beneath lilac bushes. Don’t you just love the dappled sunlight on her dress? I wonder what she is reading. It is at the Walters Art Museum but not on view.