In the 16th-century "Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons" displayed across the room, on the other hand, a crane stands delicately on one leg, its long neck tracing a gentle S-curve.

WSJ: Flights of Feathered Fancy | Birds in the Art of Japan | Metropolitan Museum of Art | By Lee Lawrence

And yes, with the birds, flowers and warmth also comes a sense of optimism that often inspires us to get our proverbial house in order.

FORBES: Spring Cleaning Your Financial Plan In 7 Steps

The woman's blouse is a purple-striped white cloth embroidered with flamboyant images of birds, animals and flowers.

BBC: A Mayan revival

Over countless millennia it evolved its own vibrant ecosystem, its volcanic peaks cloaked in deep tropical forests still riot with life: exotic birds, flowers and reptiles, many of these species found nowhere else on the planet.

BBC: Blending of cultures in Mauritius

Yet he was also a literary man (great consolation for inaction) and frequently published in the cultural magazine of the moment, The Atlantic Monthly, where, along with gymnastics, women's rights, and slavery, his subjects were flowers and birds and the changing seasons.

NPR: Excerpt: 'White Heat'

The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming and May Day is soon upon us.

NPR: Annoying Music for May Day

Fall, in fact, is a perfect time to plant trees, shrubs and perennial flowers that may benefit birds.

WSJ: Giving Birds a Refuge--WSJ Weekend Gardener