I'm a fair weathered friend...

Friday the yard was beginning to show through. Small spots, circled around the trees.  Then they got bigger and spread.  The warmth of the sunshine (rare for this time of March in Maine) was melting the snow at a rapid pace, even though the weatherman called it a "slow melt"--the kind much wanted to avoid flooding of the streams and rivers. The tiny hands of a Crocus and a Tulip appeared out of the ground waving shyly to show they were bravely coming out of their long sleep.  I had visions of impatiens and blue plumbago, roses and violets.  I felt the joy of walking outside with only a light cotton sweater on.  Life was once again wonderful.  Hope was renewed. The grass longing to be combed free of all the sand that had blown up from the snow plows....it was grand...it was splendid...it was glorious................and then I woke up Saturday morning.....was it a dream...was this a nightmare....what the heck!!!!  Nobody said it was going to snow.  OK WHO SHOOK THE SNOW GLOBE....STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! But it just continued to snow, big fluffy wet flakes for a few hours.  I played a childhood game with myself....and as my grandmother used to tell me (when I was 5 years old)...oh honey, the angles are just sprinkling powdered sugar on their cookies.  Well cookies snookies

....STOP IT!

It did eventually stop and the sun came out and the melting began again....and now today I can see the yard again and "little plant hands" are a tiny big higher and waving more proudly. Sunshine kisses my soul...it's a good thing and I love it. Come on sun....come on spring....come on joy!

My mother always says... "As the corners of your mouth goes, so goes your day"....I say "As the lack of snow grows, so goes my happiness.  Sorry Mother Nature....I'm a fair weathered (really a warm weathered) friend.

Act II....it's time...bring on the phlox!

It's eerily quite outside....like packing when you know that you must go and you don't want to...you're just not ready.  It's like things go in slow motion, the folding of garments, the laying into suitcases, the fighting back tears.  And so it seems today with winter.  She knows her days are numbered in this cycle of life--the winter of 2010-2011. 

She gave us quite a show this year.  She danced and swirled. She blew and came in fiercely at times. At times she threatened to turn on the big guns...and in some places south of us, she did.  It was as though someone laughed at the beginning of winter and said something snidely about how mamby pamby she was last year....how she allowed spring to slip in early and how the sun came shining through to the delight of everyone in New England.  She took offense, loaded her guns and in an Annie Oakley style, she hit us with some of her best shots this winter.  And she may not be done yet. 

But today, the sky is overcast with sadness.You can hear the melt-off trickle down the street into the sewer drains. The patches of grass have grown larger over the past few days.

Mother Nature knows it's time to pack up her winter clothes and start washing out her spring frocks.  Daylight will linger a little longer today and even in the quiet gloominess there is hope in the air. The taps are in and the trees once more have awakened. Mardi Gras is over, Lent has begun and it is true...Spring is just over the horizon and I can hardly wait to see it!

So Mother Nature, pack up winter and bring us a beautiful spring in New England....bring us the feeling of renewal.....let us shed our heavy coats, put away our snow blowers and shovels...bring on the colorful phlox and violets and forget-me-nots...the daffodils and bleeding hearts....bring us rain (if you must) but bag up the snow and put it in the freezer for next year.

In 2008 before the micro-burst and then the tornado took away all our lovely trees...I wrote a poem about the cycles Mother Nature takes us through....most of the trees are gone ...the one I wrote the poem  to no longer stands in our side yard....but I still think of her when I read it.....

 Mother Nature's Blessing

Pack up your things my lovely summer girl

For  sadly bright sundresses no longer flit and furl

You’ll now wear frocks of gold and red

Royal crimson ribbons tie round your drying head

The daffodils have all now gone to bed….

Your hair will flip and turn in the cold wind

And to the ground pieces of your crown you’ll send

And when full force is felt…sometimes you’ll bend

And yet you will not fall

For we are watching you to set our clock

As time is moving on….

Your arms will be covered with white heaviness

And yet you’ll feel no pain

We call you beautiful, magnificent,

And yet you are not vain

You will look thin and we will call you bare

Our hearts will break for what we think… no longer there

But in your depths much life does still remain

Soon some of you will give up sweetness that we drain

You are a queen and very tall you stand

You are our hope in winter’s wonderland

As time is moving on…

And then one day a tiny sign will show

And from that sign new life somehow you’ll grow

From a tight nub of newness-- of greenish gold

Fullness will swirl out and then unfold

……..to fill your head with a new rich crown

And you will lift our spirits once again

Sweet springtime rains will renew and refresh

You’ll spread your arms and show off your green dress

As time is moving on….

Blue skies will be your background

The sun will make you grow

Sweet gentle summer rains will moisten you

And set your crown aglow

You’ll shelter us from brightness

And cool us from the heat

Provide a place for us to write

And we sit at your feet

….as time is moving on

As time is moving on, you are …

The one that we look up to

The towering beauty queen

                a strength on a cold night

                a sign of renewal with but a hint of green

                a shelter to an apple, a home to a sweet pear

                a rainbow of warm colors no others can compare

                you’re roots run deep and when we look at you, we see

                that Mother Nature blessed us,

                with you…my precious tree.

I pale in comparison....but I don't want to

I've got to tell you, I've ready some pretty terrific books.....each one different, exciting, engaging and wonderfully written in its own way.  My favorites are the ones where you can tell the author must have spent years doing research so that every detail in a scene makes you believe the author has been there, done that, knows of what he/she is speaking......but even more importantly makes the reader feel like they've just stepped right into each scene and discussion....makes them feel like they are walking down the roads in the book, lets them actually feel the heat or cold, lets them taste the food, smell the smells...becomes one with the characters....become a part of the book.  I'm not sure I've ever read a book that meets all the  criteria more than the book I just finished,  Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. 

The man is brilliant, masterful, the kind of writer I love.  Reading his book has sparked in me the need to get back to the book I'm writing "Demitasse Magique" (The Magic Tea Cup). First off I need to get it written and published....and then hopefully someday when someone reads it, they will know how much time I spent doing research to make the people and places in my story come alive in the book and in to the reader...hopefully one of the readers of my book will post somewhere that I am the kind of writer they love....that I am brilliant and masterful.


I will let "Cutting for Stone" rest a while in my thoughts and in my bones before I get into the next book I will be reading....  a time-travel romance by Linda LaRoque called A Way Back

My book is a sort of time-travel romance too and so I'm seeking to see how others handle that genre.


For now it's back to my real work for the moment....and only time to dream about what my heart aches to do all the time....write.