Flora and fauna

In another Chinese explanation, chun is interpreted simply as the awakening of insects.

In a modern city where the landscape is dominated by highways and high-rises, to detect the seasonal changes through the sound of insects is not easy.

But for several weeks now, I have awoken to the trilling of birds. I do not know if they are birds that have come to stay here, or passing travelers in their migration north. I don't even have a chance to see them. Once up, we quickly forget about these birds and their dawn chorus.

Homer's "Iliad" refers to augury — or finding omens in the observed flight of birds. Today we have no patience with such nonsense. We have other preoccupations. The changes in plants are more noticeable. After more than a month of splendid show, the wintersweet and plum blooms are in the last phase of their glory, shedding their petals and ready to be clad in thick foliage.

But the show will continue. We have a long waiting list: magnolia, tulips, cherry blossom, peach blossom.

This glorious show of color and scent is directed by the soil, the living soil that is not yet killed by concrete.

The modern view of soil is ambivalent. The Beijing News reported recently that officials in Yongzhou, in central China's Hunan Province, while on a site visit on National Treeplanting Day on March 12, had a long stretch of red carpet laid over muddy soil, so as to reduce the risk of accidents. They have been criticized for not being genuinely interested in treeplanting, and following media uproar, some of the officials have been disciplined.