Spring in Full Swing

Our apartment window looks out over the courtyard playground where the boys play.

Spring in Bishkek seems to come all at once, exploding from bare branches to green buds and leaves from one day to the next ... not at all like in South Dakota when spring comes tentatively, little by little. At the very end of March, Bishkek looked grey and barren. Just a few days later, lawns were sprouting, weeds were thriving, buds were appearing, and the everything was filled with green.

My father mentioned how Russian authors remark upon the same phenomenon, describing spring as simply "bursting" forth. I found a quote from Lev Tolstoy which does just that:

"The sun shone warm, the grass, wherever it had not been scraped away, revived and showed green not only on the narrow strips of lawn on the boulevards but between the paving-stones as well, and the birches, the poplars and the wild cherry-trees were unfolding their sticky, fragrant leaves, and the swelling buds were bursting on the lime trees; the jackdaws, the sparrows and the pigeons were cheerfully getting their nests ready for the spring, and the flies, warmed by the sunshine, buzzed gaily along the walls." (Resurrection)

These words fit Bishkek quite well too. Though a drab and rather depressing city in the winter months, in spring Bishkek is beautifully overgrown with wilderness. Trees grow in the middle of sidewalks; tall grasses and dandelions push their way through cracks. Branches are never cut back but allowed to thrive as they will. The air is filled with fluffy cotton from the Cottonwoods and flurries of Elm seeds showering down. Everything is growing wild and free.

At the beginning of April, Bishkek looked like this:

and this:

and a few weeks later, it has transformed into this:

This is how I picture the "Secret Garden" would look.

To get into the spring spirit, the kids and I bought some seeds and planted them outside in front of our apartment -- zinnias, carrots and peppers. So far nothing has come up yet, but it has been raining lately, so we could get lucky. A few flowers that we planted in the house have already started growing, much to Misha's delight.

More spring shots:

Also in the spirit of spring, we found a caterpillar and took him home. 

He immediately decided it would be better to metamorphose than to live in a cereal box ...

... and now he rests peacefully inside his very cool-looking pupa. We are hoping that Grandma will look in her insect guide to tell us what kind of butterfly or moth to expect!

What's better than a sucker on a nice spring day?

What a cheesy grin!

Misha's too!

A double-scooter ride

Walking over the train bridge.

Learning some climbing tricks from a neighbor girl

Sebby enjoyed climbing with these two girls. They made monkey sounds and exclaimed, "Ya obezianka!" Sebby joined in, "Ya toje obezianka!" - I'm a monkey too!

Happy spring!