Spring Renewal

Spring Renewal

Salmon colored geraniums, magenta petunia’s, yellow forsythia, red roses, black-eyed Susan’s, lavender lilacs, white begonias and pink cherry blossoms. It’s been a spring defined by fog so it’s time to conjure up the colors that will soon define the landscape.

We cannot, of course, leave out the birds. The stately red cardinals, the handsome blue jays, and the sweet yellow goldfinches. We have a new birdfeeder at our house with wooden side panels that slide out, with a rounded glass front that actually rests on the windowsill in the living room so you can watch the birds as they slip into the glass feeder. The top panel opens making it possible to fill and clean the feeder from inside.

It’s encouraging, on a rainy day, to read that farm stands are announcing their opening dates and antique shops, closed during the cold winter months, are dusting shelves and preparing for the summer vacationers. Ice cream shops shuttered closed during the coldest months when we can only think about hot chocolate will soon be serving cones and sundaes. I defy anyone to resist an ice cream cone on a glorious summer day.

As the snow leaves the mountains and the streams, and rivers drain off the water, it’s possible to think about hiking again. An exquisite exhibition currently on view in the Asian wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art let my mind wander to the lakes and mountains in New Hampshire. The exhibition is entitled: Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korea.

The Diamond mountains, or the Kumgang mountain range, is located just over the border in North Korea about 31 miles from the South Korean city of Kumgang city of Sokcho. The mountains have seasonal names and the spring name, Kŭmgangsan. These mountains, because of their location in North Korea have been inaccessible in modern times, yet this exhibition features beautifully painted scrolls and screens and a few modern and contemporary paintings from the eighteenth century to the present. There is an album by Jeong Seon (1676–1759), who revolutionized Korean painting. Many of the works are designated Treasures from the National Museum of Korea and have never been displayed in the United States. Our White Mountains have inspired such art and poetry too.

I’m counting the days to Memorial Day weekend. Hoping, of course, for a few days of sunshine when it will be possible to throw open the garage doors, pull the summer furniture out from under plastic covers, clean the grill and at the end of the afternoon enjoy the first bar-be-que of the season. I’m planning the menu which will most certainly include warm rhubarb pie, with rhubarb from our garden, and vanilla ice cream.