TORIDORI SEASONAL LETTER 11.

Yellow Flowers Coloring the Early Spring of Belgium

Toridoriの季節便り

早春を彩る黄色い花たち

About two months after the New Year. This year again, this season has come — the flowering season of hazels and alders, or in the other words, the season of pollen allergy.

January to February is not a typical period associated with flowers, but actually there is a plant group that starts flowering as early as this time. Yes, the small yellow flowers on the trees and bushes along the streets, the rivers, or in the forests. 

These are hazels and alders, belonging to the same plant family of birch. They have very similar yellow flowers, and both of them are well-known causes of pollen allergy in Belgium. I, too, suffer from the heavy allergy to them, but I like the way the flowers look like — the way they are hanging on the branches, doesn't it look like kanzashi (簪, Japanese hair accessaries for the traditional hairstyle)?

Now the days are sometimes cold, and sometimes warm. 
The spring is slowly approaching Flanders.

Erina