Friday, March 30, 2018

March 30th, 2018

March!!!

I welcomed March at the beginning of the month, and gave a nod of the head to this wild rapscallion of a month, - wind and rain, - a touch of irascibility, and the only sweetness to be found here in the Similkameen was in the scent of the violets that began to carpet the greening lawns....

I say goodbye to Him (March - I'm sure he's male) and prepare myself to welcome April, who I know can be frivolous and sometimes "cruel", - but the month ahead will see the daffodils, the tulips and the windflowers, and the lovely scarlet stubs of the peony parting the rich earth.

The days are milder now, - gentler, and sometimes even tender.  But still the west wind stirs up the mountain snows and brings the colder air down into the village.

Christina Rossetti says  - " I wonder if the sap is stirring yet,
                                          If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate,

                                          If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun
                                          And crocus fires are kindling one by one:
                                          Sing robin, sing:
                                          I still an sore in doubt concerning Spring"

Well, we do have robins, and I have heard them sing. 
And the tulips and the daffodils reach higher each day 
with their sword like leaves.

The Daphne is in bloom in the corner of the garden...
the forsythia in a bucket in the bathtub!

The altar flowers are waiting in my kitchen 
and a couple of lovely lilies
hoard their many buds until they bloom 
for Easter.

"Spring is made of solid, fourteen-karat gratitude, the reward
for the long wait.
Every religious tradition from the northern hemisphere
honors some form of April hallelujah,
for this is the season of exquisite redemption, a slam-bank 
return to joy after a season of cold second thoughts."
Barbara Kingsolver

Tomorrow we will go and change the hangings to White. 
put Easter flowers in the brass vases
and crowd lilies around the Altar. and all rejoice in
this "exquisite redemption"...

although, alas, Easter is not what it once was
in this secular society we live in.



Oh tell me, are White Gloves and Easter Bonnets
part of the Easter Tradition any more?

even a frivolous part?????

Here is Bing Crosby singing "Easter Parade"





Charles and I met on Easter Sunday, April 25th, 1943
Perhaps that is why I am so sentimental
about Bing's version....

This was 'our' song....

Such a mish mash of a posting, but it's been a while
since I have settled down and gathered my thoughts!!!!!

Spent March weaving....more on that later....