“Come, gentle Spring! Ethereal Mildness! Come.”
Today I woke up nearer afternoon than morning. It had been a late night. I watched the Oscars at my friends’ house then came home, checked e-mail and watched a little TV. Before I realized it, the time had slipped away and it was after 3.
Yesterday it poured all day, but last night, as I was going home, the rain had turned to heavy snow and it was slushy and slippery, but right now the day is lovely with blue skies, lots of sun and a bit of warmth. I have feeders to fill, dog food to buy and laundry to do. That’s my agenda for the day. I hope I can manage.
I can see the white flowers of the drooping snowdrops in my garden. They don’t mind snow or cold. They are spring’s first miracle. Other green shoots are just appearing through the soil, but in one part of the front garden, the dafs have grown high. Perhaps yellow buds will be next.
Winter is beginning to weight me down. I am tired of cold and snow. I don’t remember ever before being so anxious for spring. Usually I just hibernate with good books, and I’m fine with that and patient with the weather. Maybe all the rain we’ve had, those days without heat or the heavy snowstorms have pushed me to ache for spring. I want one day when the deck is the perfect spot to be.
I don’t like vacations centered on the beach, even when I’m sick of winter. I want to see things, to eat new food and to hear a language not my own. I like old places, even ancient places. The fun of a new city is wandering and getting lost and finding wonders on the way. Sometimes I take all rights or all lefts. I like to sit in the sun at a table at a sidewalk cafe and drink coffee and watch the world go by. When I shop, I look for the unusual. I take a lot of pictures. I am partial to doors and windows. I always think of the generations of people who looked through those same windows and I wonder what they saw. I walk so much I am exhausted and always fall asleep early.
Today I’ll have no adventures, but I do have some sun and some warmth. I guess that will have to do.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: ancient cities, dafs, deck, dog food, old places, sidewalk cafes, snowdrops, sun, sunny day, tired of winter, travel, vacations, warm day, winter
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February 25, 2013 at 12:50 pm
So glad you have decent weather for a change. Enjoy your day!
February 25, 2013 at 1:06 pm
Thank you, plgcm! It is as bright as I’ve seen it in a long while. The light doesn’t have the sharpness of winter.
February 25, 2013 at 1:02 pm
Even a Swede got an Oscar last night 🙂 I haven’t seen the movie (looking for Sugar man I think it’s called) but it wins prices all over the world.
We’ve had a springwinter day here and due to bad tires I got the chance to walk around some in the village I work in. I really didn’t want to go back to work after that 🙂 But having to pay $625 for four new tires also made me want to work so I could earn back that money 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m very much like You when it comes to travelling! I can like the beach one day but not more, the rest I want to travel around finding old places where tourists seldom go, there still are some places like that here in Europe. But besides doors and windows I tend to take a lot of photographs of different vehicles, some look as if they belonged in the third world 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’ve had enough of winter now but I’m afraid we’ll have it for most parts of Mars too, but I can always hope for an early spring even if I have nu studded tires on my car 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
February 25, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Christer,
It is supposed to be a really good film. Sugar Man didn’t go to the Oscars as he said it was about the movie, not him.
New tires are ridiculously expensive but we don’t have a choice. With this car, mine should last a long time as i don’t really go anywhere.
Cuba is the place to go for car pictures. There are lots of 1950’s American cars which have been given whole new looks. Since parts could not be imported, Cuban mechanics built their own. I saw a program about them, and it was fascinating.
I just want winter to go away!!
Have a great evening!!
February 25, 2013 at 1:35 pm
Hi Kat,
Yes, it sounds like you have had just a bit too much winter this year. You need a long weekend in a warmer, sunnier part of the country just to shake some of that winter filth off.
I’ve not had winter sickness too badly except for the stir craziness of not being able to get about with my usual grace and facility. The porch was sunny and warm for most of the winter so that was some consolation. Things are better now, thankfully. But I’m not giving up Peapod. 🙂
The beach in summer holds no interest for me. I only go between October and April when few others are likely to be there. My favorite vacations are the ones I take with friends and I don’t much care where. It’s Away with Friends: the best kind of vacation.
The accumulation from our little snowstorm has all melted away. The back swamp was lovely this morning with all the tree limbs outlined in snow and lit by morning sun. Now it’s all drippy. 🙂
Cheer up, Kat, spring is only 23 days, 3 hours and 27 minutes away. 🙂
Enjoy the snowdrops and the rest of your day. 🙂
February 25, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Hi Caryn,
Nope, Peapod is here to stay. He just came again a couple of days ago, but the dog food comes from Agway so I have to go there.
The sun hasn’t been all that warming. It has had a sharpness to it the way it always does in winter. Today, though, it looks like a warm spring sun so I have hope.
My friends are not intrepid travelers. Most go to familiar places or to Europe so I am stuck on my own. I live near the beach so I’ll not spend money to see one even if it is winter.
I’ll hang in there but I’m going to be grumbling.
February 25, 2013 at 2:14 pm
I’m not the beach type either. Broil and flip over – boring. When I finally had the chance to travel alone to destinations of my choice (and my financial opportunities) my first trip was London. Lots of hiking, the subway was on strike 🙁 , but I managed to see Bert Jansch in concert, though it took hours to get there. Shopping meant 2nd-hand record shops, a paradise for a poor German music addict. My second choice was Malta. Malta was perfect for me, I saw all the ancient places and luckily I had great hiking weather in May. It fits your vacation description. Have you also been to Malta?
February 25, 2013 at 5:30 pm
Birgit,
I love London and have been there several times; sometimes it was the destination other times I just stopped there on the way home.
In my younger days, I walked all over the city just to see what I might see. In my last few trips I used the subway or a taxi.
Malta is on my list, and I have mentioned it to friends that I’d like to see it. It was the setting in a movie I saw and I was taken with it.
February 25, 2013 at 6:55 pm
I sorta love London as well
And next week Birgit and Kat and im6/8, we get the first new Bowie album in ten years…here is the first paragraph of the review from the Daily Telegraph
It is an enormous pleasure to report that the new David Bowie album is an absolute wonder: urgent, sharp-edged, bold, beautiful and baffling, an intellectually stimulating, emotionally charged, musically jagged, electric bolt through his own mythos and the mixed-up, celebrity-obsessed, war-torn world of the 21st century.
Cannot wait !
February 25, 2013 at 7:03 pm
My Dear Hedley,
That is quite a review. Now you have me hardly able to wait! I will pre-order at Amazon.
February 25, 2013 at 7:07 pm
Kat, should be another track tomorrow.
February 25, 2013 at 7:09 pm
I am heading to the V&A to see the exhibit
February 25, 2013 at 7:40 pm
The new Bowie album – I can wait. Kat and Hedley (and im6?), please listen and tell about it! I like his last Berlin song but I don’t like Bowie. I’m not even sure if I want to have the new Iggy/Stooges album in April, the band is still great but sadly Iggys voice isn’t good anymore.
February 25, 2013 at 9:20 pm
Birgit,
I will let you know!!
February 25, 2013 at 9:21 pm
Please let me know, MDH!!
February 25, 2013 at 5:00 pm
And so I hope that you are Gracie enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with the KTCC Football team and their effort at Upton Park. Another performance of absolute brilliance as Gareth Bale scored two and made the third and TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR won 3-2 and moved in to third place in the English Premier League
Any thought I had of celebrating with a few Ikea Swedish meatballs but these seem to be a bit horsey, and frankly I have never even been in to an Ikea (Sorry Christer)
Come On You Spurs
February 25, 2013 at 5:07 pm
So glad you had some sunshine today! I have spent this month recharging as well and am ready to get some things accomplished as well as take a day trip or two. Spring is coming .
February 25, 2013 at 5:36 pm
splendid,
It was a really nice day today. Gracie and I got her dog food. She loves shopping for it as she is quite welcome in the store. They all greet her by name. I came home and read a while and now the laundry.
Tomorrow is supposed to be nice as well!
February 25, 2013 at 5:34 pm
My DEar Hedley,
Gracie was out, but I saw KTCC’s team play. When the header missed the goal and our team was still losing 2-1, I was just a bit downhearted, but we were triumphant!
I have never been to an Ikea either, but I have leftover dip from last night which I will reheat. Both were quite tasty snacks for the Oscars.
February 25, 2013 at 6:22 pm
Kat, yes Mr Adebayor looked a little casual with the header after the ball hit the post. I hope you stuck around long enough to see Bale score the winner, absolutely amazing.
Watched some of the Oscars and was pleased for Adele who was born in Tottenham and supports the KTCC team. Thought Burly Chassis was wonderful singing “Goldfinger”, probably my highlight of the night.
February 25, 2013 at 6:42 pm
MDH,
Sadly, I did not see the goal except when you mentioned it and I went and found a replay.
Shirley is in her 70’s but boy can she belt out a song. That too was one of my highlights.
I like the Oscars last night. There were low points, but there were more high points. I was disappointed by the Bond tribute other than Miss Shirley.
February 25, 2013 at 6:47 pm
Nothing quite like a good spoonerism.
February 25, 2013 at 6:53 pm
MDH,
I can’t find it!
February 25, 2013 at 7:49 pm
The weather prognosticators predicted last night that the cold front would come through this morning and spawn a line of thunderstorms. Well, they were wrong about the rain but the wind picked up from the Northwest and it feels cold. The Midwest is being plummeted by another blizzard as a result of that deep low pressure center that passed us by this morning. Did the ground hog see his shadow or not? I hope this storm is not headed for New England.
I haven’t seen any of the movies that were nominated last night. Our friends in Canada are complaining that Argo failed to give the Canadians the credit they probably deserve in getting our people out of Iran.
I refuse to see the one about finding and killing Ben Ladin because it espouses a false premise that torture resulted in locating Ben Ladin’s currier. The truth is that the information was obtained by using standard FBI non enhanced techniques. Unfortunately, the uninformed public will think that beating the crap out of a guy resulted in good information.
The musical is too miserable for me to sit through and I don’t really care about the French Revolution. The French have been revolting ever since 🙂
I haven’t seen Lincoln because my wife doesn’t like docudramas and I don’t want to see it alone. I guess I will have to wait until it shows up as a DVD. I am reading Doris Kearns’s book, “Band of Rivals” that was the basis of the movie.
February 25, 2013 at 9:17 pm
Bob,
Luckily, the snow is not headed in my direction We’ll get a dusting if anything. I saw pictures of that blizzard on the news. It was awful. I sympathize with all of them having been in the same situation a few weeks ago.
I think your Canadian friends are correct. They were given credit but certainly not enough. I thought it a good movie despite its historical inaccuracy. The ending was far more exciting than the real thing.
I agree about the torture giving a false picture. I didn’t want to see that movie either.
I am not a fan of musicals though I do like Singing in the Rain and West Side Story.
I really liked Lincoln. The atmosphere in the White House, the cold, the darkness and the smoke, was exactly how I imagined the White House of that time must have been. Daniel Day Lewis was wonderful.
I go to movies alone when my friends don’t want to see a movie and I do. I figure you can’t really talk in the movie anyway.
February 25, 2013 at 10:11 pm
I like to have someone to discuss the movie with afterwards. I heard on the radio this morning while driving to work that they are running low on sand and salt for the roads in Kansas.
February 25, 2013 at 11:49 pm
Bob,
That was on the news tonight. They were expecting sand within a short bit but they didn’t mention salt.
February 26, 2013 at 7:57 am
February 26, 2013 at 11:02 am
MDH,
The video was taken down!!!!
February 26, 2013 at 11:26 am
DANG !