We are in the throws of an honest-to-goodness Wasatch spring here in Utah. As I mentioned yesterday, we had sunny weather in the morning and in the evening, with snow in between. Today, we have experienced periods of sun, followed quickly by dark and foreboding skies, which then give way to sun again.
I think I never really appreciated spring until 1982. In that year, I traveled to Europe for the first time to visit a very good friend of mine from college, also named Joe (pictured below at Versailles), who was spending his senior year in architecture at a program housed in the old stables of the Chateau de Versailles.
Joe and I arranged for me to fly to Paris, where I would spend a few days seeing the sights there while I stayed with him, then - over his spring break - we would take the train to Italy to see Rome and Florence before traveling on to Switzerland.
Joe was boarding that year with a family who lived in a 200-year-old house in the town of Versailles, pictured below.
He lived on the third floor, in what was originally servants' quarters, but took meals with the family. This was the view from his window onto the walled back garden.
Spring was just arriving when I was in Paris. I was enthralled with the trees and flowers in bloom, especially in the settings afforded by Paris and its environs. I had always been an "autumn person," but I found myself enjoying the beauties and ethos of spring for the first time in my life.
My appreciation grew more profound in Italy. The train from Paris to Rome left in the evening, and by the time morning came, we were snaking our way down the Italian coast on a gloriously beautiful spring morning. I was enchanted as I looked out the train window at the coastal communities we passed with blossoms everywhere.
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| Me in St. Peter's Square, April 1982 |
Then, we arrived in Rome. One of the first things I noticed as the train pulled into Rome was the wisteria hanging everywhere, heavy with beautiful purply blossoms. The picture that leads this post was taken in the Roman Forum. I don't believe I had ever seen wisteria before, and I was enchanted - there's that word again - by its beauty.
Mark has planted wisteria in the front of our home that grows over the pergola. This is a picture I took of it yesterday. I hope I don't miss its bloom while we are in Hawaii.
By the time I returned home from that European trip, I had a newfound appreciation of and love for spring. That love grew as I returned to France and spent the early spring of 1985 in Paris. One of my fondest memories from my mission was traveling in late April on a day off - my last P-Day in Paris - with some other missionaries and a couple of female companions to Vaux-le-Viscomte, a fabulous chateau southeast of Paris. We took transit as far as we could, then walked the rest of the way, part of which was down this charming road.
We also passed an abandoned house alongside the road, and when I saw what had been painted on the wall of the house (look closely: "I (Heart) Joe"), I couldn't resist having my picture taken alongside it. What are the chances?
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