In the northern hemisphere, you are on the threshold of Halloween, and on the east coast of America, you are being lashed with fierce storms. Here it is Beltane, the season of peak green, the spring festival. The sun is shining and the leaves are frothing from the trees,

 blossom abounds, sprouting from the barest of stumps,

 and then there are the delicate leaves,

 that cast shadows as if they were Japanese ink drawings.

The season of hope has arrived,

and the ti, or cabbage trees are blooming profusely, a sign, according to Maori, of a warm summer to come.