Birds chirp happily and golden sunrays glisten on morning dewdrops.

In another, a ladybug drinks water from a dewdrop on a long blade of grass.

Alsop took a painterly approach to Mahler’s many details — birdsong and bells, dewdrop harps, the lowing moo of a tuba.

Instead, the dishes the series features — some entirely fanciful, like dwindling dewdrop cake, and others based on the real world, like gingerbread — become vehicles for creativity and problem-solving.

I want the rebirth, the renewal, the rejuvenation, the dewdrops and showers, the first cuckoos and ascendant larks, the dooryard lilacs and budding twigs.