Flowers of Shanghai

The winter here is long, and  cold, and dreary.  I am not a fan of winter, but in a lot of places you get snow, or fun brisk walks in fresh bracing air, or hot fires and warm blankets.  Shanghai doesn't feel like that in winter.  It is bleak, cold rain and sometimes dirty grey snow....not pretty and  the air is far from fresh and brisk.  So when spring comes, it feels really, really good.  Like a sort of affirmation that things can be pretty again.  Maybe the air is still filthy, maybe the incessant construction still continues, but the Shanghainese love their flowers, and they start appearing everywhere, which is a good, good thing.