HALLE, Belgium (AP) – Nature’s beauty is rapturous again this springtime – flaunting its purple haze of bluebells in the woods south of Brussels.
This time though, any and all can enjoy the spectacle following two years of pandemic measures that had kept visitors to a trickle. And what’s more: flowers, and blossoms – be it in Japan, the Netherlands or Belgium – can provide a balm for the soul in these days of anxiety over COVID-19 and war.
“It does take your mind off the seriousness going on around in Ukraine and everything, because you get absorbed into nature,” said Hogne Gjersvik of Bergen, Norway, as he took in the sweet smell of the bluebells and the chirping of all kinds of birds. “It really helps. Now, we’ve been encouraged in Norway to do a lot of walks and, you know, don’t sit at home too much and get out and enjoy nature because you relax and … get back into your natural state of mind.”
There’s no better place in mid-April for that than the famed Hallerbos and its bluebell festival, which is fully open for the first time since COVID-19 appeared over two years ago.
Tens of thousands already thronged the pathways during the crowded long Easter weekend. Tuesday though, like any weekday, afforded more space for solitude and soothing thought, something often in short supply in a world all too often drawn to the horrors of the war in Ukraine, or the many hundreds of millions that have suffered through the pandemic.