A KOREAN SPRING

For me, one of the most beautiful seasons of the year is Spring, there is no better time of the year. The weather begins to warm up, and we appreciate it more because we have come from the dark and cold winter. People seem to be more friendly and outgoing. Relationships are at their peaks with lovers almost infatuated with an uncontrolled urge to rejoice the new life of spring. The scenery all around us begins to change and blossom into an array of colors we can only adore. This is especially true in Korea, our second spring time here and this year especially, has us in awe.

Spring time in Korea is a time well known for cherry blossoms, some might think of Japan when the thought of cherry blossoms comes to mind, however it is a well celebrated and special time in Korea as well. Some Koreans have actually bitterly mentioned to me that the Japanese people stole the cherry blossom from Korea during the Japanese invasion, around the 1590s, and then had the cheek to make it their national flower. How true this is I am not sure, but it makes for an interesting tale.

So as I was saying, Spring is a breathtakingly beautiful time in Korea, with streets all over adorned with pink-white cherry blossom trees and the always interesting cherry blossom festivals celebrated throughout Korea where the cherry blossoms truly make their mark of beauty. Where these festivals are located is a pleasant nightmare regarding traffic and crowds as people flood in from all over the country to enjoy the aroma and elegant beauty of these soft whitish blossom petals.

The blossoms are short-lived before falling to the ground like light snow in the wind. These trees peak for about two weeks if you are lucky and this gives the festivals the opportunity to run over two weekends, giving everyone enough time to make an appearance to at least one festival to witness the fleeting moment of Spring’s radiance. People capture their moments among the blossoms with cameras of all kinds, from large professional cameras to using the more common method of a smartphone on a selfie stick, striking all kinds of funny poses and uploading them to their social media platform to share with their friends.

Along with the romantic cherry blossom, Korea also boasts the ‘rape seed flower’ festivals. The rape seed flower is more commonly known as the Canola flower and the fields of green and yellow that these flowers produce are astonishing. The radiant yellow can brighten up a cloudy day in Spring and is definitely worth seeing. Again people from all over will flock to these festivals to capture a ‘selfie’ of themselves between the flowers and enjoy the natural beauty of Spring.

The Canola Flowers and Cherry Blossoms are but only the highlight of Spring, there are still of course all the other flowers such as Azaleas, tulips, daffodil’s and one of my favorite, the magnolia trees, not to mention the other fruit blossoming trees and wild flowers on the mountain slopes and river sides. The Korean town councils really consider the aesthetic beauty of their road sides and parks and these are planted full of spring flowers; blossoming a palette of colors a painter would struggle with.

We didn’t make it to a Cherry Blossom festival this year, but we did enjoy the Cherry Blossoms around our new town in Uljin. We did, however, visit a ‘Rape seed Flower Festival’ this year and it was quite fantastic to see the flowers and get some great photos.

Lastly I want to add that Spring in Korea is also a great time for birders (and I don’t mean the kind checking chicks out downtown, I’m sure it’s good for that too though). In the last month I have seen more birds than the whole of last year in Korea, this could be related to our new location or that I have just taken more notice. During autumn and winter, the only birds one really see’s are those that make the ever common sound that, to me, will always scream “Korea” – the magpie’s are prolific all year round and can be dominatingly noisy, but during the Spring the days are filled with the sounds of birds of all kinds, rejoicing this special time of the year.

To sum it all up, Korea knows how to celebrate the glorious Spring and the coming of warmer days, not only the people but the birds in the sky and the flora of the country, down to its roots.

( Taken near the Seongnu caves in Uljin )

( Taken on a rainy night, near mid-night, you can see a cars break lights streaming through the picture )

( The streets adorned with Cherry Blossom trees )

( Taken at midnight neat Uljin, the road wet from the rain, helping to reflect the lights. )

( A plum or peach tree blossoming next to the canola fields )

( The canola field just after sunset, I attempted to catch the last of the light that day )

( A cherry blossom tree lit up by break lights from cars behind the scenes, giving this picture great colors ontop of the yellow canolas )

We hope you enjoyed the pictures and Spring write up. For more pictures please feel free to take a look at my Facebook page or Flickr page. Just click on either to check them out. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your friends.

#SouthKorea #Uljin #Newlyweds #Spring #Seasons #Cherryblossoms #Rapeseedflowers #Canolaflowers #radiantcolors #blossoms