Bits and Pieces

This is how I feel my days are, - bits and pieces and somewhat fractured..

Can I blame this on the weather?  It is all in bits and pieces too, and somewhat fractured.  Early in the morning the skies are grey and melancholy;  the sun makes an effort to break through and the sky lightens somewhat, and then finally he (the sun) bursts forth and breaks the grey of the sky into pieces, proclaiming his dominion and carrying with him bright blue skies and if not white clouds, at least pearly grey.

That lasts for an hour or two, and then the wind comes hurtling from the west, causing confusion and chaos, - a few grains of sleety snow swirl around the trees, the starlings all rise in alarm and the sun hurries away behind that same grey sky that bore down upon us in the morning.

All in the name of March - a mecurial and tempermental month if ever there was one!  It is all fits and starts, and one never quite knows where one is with this moody month.

So perhaps I can cast a little blame on the weather for my somewhat melancholy demeanor.  And yet, having lived this long I know that all years are not the same - spring doesn't arrive on a set date, - she either dillies and dallies along the way, or she bursts upon the scene in glorious array before anyone is ready for her.

And then it comes upon me that the blossoms in Japan won't be as sweet this spring, and that I need to apply some Lenten patience and discipline to my wayward whingeing.......and so I do.

It is the Happy Hour and I am off to pour a small libation and toast the Ides of March that will soon be upon us.

ABC Wednesday
March 9th, 2011

The letter this week is H


H stands for one of the loveliest and most welcome of perennial spring flowers - the Hellebore.  The Hellebore comes early, - if it is a Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) you may find it in your garden in January, but this year even the Lenten Rose (Helleborus orientalis) is going to have to hurry along if it is going to bloom before Ash Wednesday!

Yesterday in the garden it was shy and unaccommodating - only the very tips of the promising, pregnant stubs pushing through the frozen ground.

and I had to hunt up last year's March pictures of this sweet and delicate bloom

some of them a little tattered and past their prime, but always beautiful

For more great interpretations of the letter H click here, at ABC Wednesday, with

thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her kind helpers.

Anticipation, anticipation!

At last the day has arrived.  There are snow flurries in the mountains to the east, but mainly the clouds sail on bright blue seas and the wind is gentle.

I have scurried around, - put dinner on in the slow cooker, set the bread machine so that in another fifteen minutes it will be groaning and whining as it takes over kneading duties.  The bed is made, the dishwasher stacked, and I'm off with wheelbarrow, shears and rake and hoe to lay waste to the fall debris in the garden and make a general inspection of any greenery that might be approaching the surface to unfurl its verdant banner.

The year we moved to town from the farm we planted potatoes in our lovely riverside garden, ( the one with the deep black loam, and room for a pony)  on the 4th of March, but this is a different spring and today is a little jewel glowing in a stormy setting, - gradually milding temperature but rain and snow flurries all around for the rest of the week as Old Man Winter huffs and puffs his way out of the valley, reluctant to leave and throwing little tantrums all the while.

I'm off!  Delighted and stoked with energy.....