Colors of spring

Every day now, spring’s palette evolves. Though we cherish the drama of fall’s wild flame-like flair, spring’s festive color scheme holds equivalent charms.

Buds on bushes and trees are swelling and bursting like slow-sizzling firecrackers across our region. The brick blush of redbuds and cloudy swirls of serviceberry spark the landscape. Sunny shouts of the yellow-budded plants and the electrifying lime glow of those leaves, destined to be darker greens, compliment the orange, sienna and peach tones enlivening bare silhouettes of branch and limb.

From the forest floor rise pale bluets, those four-petaled blue-purple wildflowers winking a yellow eye at passersby. And the pinkish trailing arbutus creeps along woodland lanes, its five lobes harboring a fuzzy center from which exquisite fragrance emanates. Fiddlehead ferns unfurl flags of fine green design.

From the shrubs at forest’s edge, a cinnamon-toned brown thrasher casts its marvelous yellow eye in my direction. In the treetop overhead, a purple finch flicks its raspberry-colored head while warbling brightly. Wild turkeys splay metallic-toned tail fans flirtatiously.

Floating here and there, bits of pastel blue dapple forest paths as diminutive spring azure butterflies driffle about, seemingly drunk on spring’s abundance.

Spring is the dreamiest of seasons. Her colors illuminate our lives with loveliness. Take a long lingering look.