Caveat: Spring’s Bouquet

Spring is coming into effect.  There are buds and small white flowers on some of the trees, and the days are warmer.  It's rained a few times.

One thing I notice are the smells: organic smells of flowers, growing things.  There's an irony to the fact that one thing that happens in the Spring is that things begin to rot again, after a long winter when they lie frozen and undecaying:  piles of leaves and neglected bits of organic matter.  Once again, there are flies around the neatly bundled plastic bags of garbage that accumulate behind the buildings.

The bitter cold of winter often made me think of Minnesota, although it rarely would get as cold here as it does there, and there is much less precipitation here in the winter, too.  But the cold winds out of the north, and the little patches of leftover snow in shady spots that would persist for several weeks.

With the arrival of Spring and Spring's smells, however, Korea seems more "east coasty" in character.  In terms of the types and variety of plants, perhaps.  And the particular smells?  I don't know which flowers broadcast which smells into the air, but it just seems to have a more east-coast feel to it.

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