The yellow is gone from Scotland.

When we left, Arthur's Seat was covered in thick, spiny gorse, with yellow blooms that had been doing so since September. Hardy and weed-like in its determination to survive, gorse kept the wilds of Scotland in various shades of dull and fiery yellow all winter and through the climately-depressing spring. We watched the yellow drift away as we flew across the Atlantic in June.

When we returned, the yellow had all gone, replaced by shades of brown and green and the wispy, wheat-like flutters of wild grasses. Though upon second glance, gotten during a hike up Arthur's Seat to reclaim our place as neighbor's of the volcanic plug, we noticed another color: purple. Patches of bright purple flowers cropped up along marshy paths or the heads of springs. And the dull purple of thistle peeked out from underneath grass seeds and slumbering gorse. It gives our mini-mountain a whole new look, a little wilder and rugged than what the pretty yellow could have done. It feels like spring all over again, with new flowers, and beautiful weather, and thistles that smell like lilac nostalgia.

It's amazing how different Arthur's Seat can look after a month in West Virginia.