Spring begins in Victoria sometime in December, just before the ‘official’ end (calendar-wise) of autumn. It begins with blossoms on the decorative fruit trees along Hillside Avenue and flowers on bushes on Caledonia by Quadra and scented English violets in various gardens and winter pansies being planted in civic flowerbeds – at least these are what I notice first.
Winter happens in the midst – sometimes snow – usually short-lived – and chilly cold rather than frigid cold – and days stingy of light .
Then in February our city orchards begin to bloom. This is a vista along View Street where the trees are at their finest for blossoms. Soon they will begin to shower down petals and this is magical.
It’s different from springtime in Ontario where I lived for many years. It’s different. It’s springtime in February in a Victoria climate.
A stop and stare up into the heights of a tree that has put forth such an exquisite expression of beauty will reward both the viewer and the viewed on many levels . You can feel the gratitude of a tree being admired.
Sometimes staying in the moment leads to a sudden leap into the past: admiring this pink lady today on a street where construction was happening below brought two images to mind: engrossed thusly in India with the sounds and smells of scooters around me; engrossed thusly in my beloved southern Ontario with the scent of freshly ploughed earth joining the fragrance of the flowers.
This newborn state of Spring is so fleeting that the wish not to miss it is accompanied by that slight longing at the sight of it knowing that now it has happened it soon will be gone and an appreciation that seems to expand as I grow older of the time of anticipation.
I seem to have missed the ‘haze’ stage of willow trees this year – darn – they are now in tiny baby leaf form: I must have blinked.
Lilac bud. Essence of lilac. Perfection.
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2 responses to “Springtime ; Victoria BC”
I was just talking to our daughter in Victoria a couple of days ago and she was telling me about the blossoms and spring flowers. I’m envious as we are under piles of snow here in Ontario.
That is always the dilemma – what to say to our relatives still experiencing winter! “It’s almost the middle of March,” I said to my father in Kitchener when he said more snow was coming, “spring has got to be on its way.” “I certainly hope so,” he replied but the fact that you are breaking eighty-year-old records had him sounding doubtful. I can remember at the end of one long winter back in Toronto going out and making a bonfire in the snow. I don’t know if it made the spring immediately appear but the woodsmoke attracted some neighbours and we all had a good laugh when I told them why I was doing it.