“... I
particularly well remember; it was a lovely afternoon about the close of
March... I presently fell back, and began to botanise and entomologise along
the green banks and budding hedges... and I could hear the sweet song of the happy lark; then my
spirit of misanthropy began to melt away beneath the soft, pure air and genial
sunshine..."
No, I don’t have any
qualms about talking about one season melting into another while there is a
nasty winter storm ravaging parts of the rest of the country. San Diego is a
weather world to itself where the miseries of a true winter storm are almost never realized. While I may miss the signs of spring from my childhood like forsythia
or lilacs, I don’t often long to return there and pay the price of having to endure winter to
earn spring. Here, I may not have to wait for snows to melt, but even though our seasons may not be as obvious, we have dreary unmistakable winter that is now beginning to melt into spring’s optimism.
Here, spring comes in halts and starts, bringing lovely
perfect temperatures and sunshine and the smell of clean green growing things
one day, and cold dark clouds and rain the next. Today offers a taste of spring
but with the cool tang of coming rain before the sun moves further south in the
sky and squats directly overhead searing everything in sight. There are so many
things out my window that need my attention I am drawn outside and ready to dig
in.
The longer days are a relief, and with the promise of even longer afternoons when we move to Daylight Savings Time in a week. The end of winter usually finds me with a pessimistic spirit that has
seemed tired and cranky and needing a daily nap. But those feelings are indeed
beginning to melt away in the soft morning light of a brighter season to come.
And if
anticipating all the wonderful things about the end of a long dark winter and
the coming of a promising bright spring were not enough to lift my sprits, J
leaves Afghanistan in less than 30 days.
1 comment:
<30 days = OUTSTANDING!
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