For months in the winter the landscape is all one drab, monotonous, monochromatic stretch. Houses, apricot trees, fields, revesting walls, all are of a uniformly dingy and depressing gray. And to intensify such utter colorlessness there are low-hanging, motionless clouds. The whole picture is dreary, uninspiring, almost lifeless. Then in summer the miraculous awakening takes place.
Life returns and color is reborn in the rich greens and yellows of the crops and trees.
This metamorphosis occurs in all the village oases of this mountain country, from Ladakh to Chitral. But the southern Hunza oasis is probably larger and certainly more picturesquely framed than any other in Gilgit Agency. It is best seen in its entire sweep from Nagyr across the river. The blossoms mass in twinkling and riotous profusion, flooding the stage with their dazzling beauty. In its green phase, the attraction of the oasis lies in the restful, unglittering emerald of its trees and crops, a shield against the stark, harsh glare of the surrounding country, stripped and bathed by fierce sunlight.