Monday, February 22, 2010


A Song of Spring


I have lost my place in the book I am reading. My knitting lies lonely on the floor by my chair. I stare out my window at nothing but grey. Grey ground, grey sky, grey mood.

The remnants of the recent snowfall are dotted here and there - vestiges of a once noble army of cheerful snowmen, now half melted, missing heads and arms - a forlorn tribe of lumpy mutants, rather pitiful to see. The extravagant cabbages that adorned the autumn garden have dwindled in the freezing air to fist sized globules of purple, more suitable for the compost heap than the flower show,.

Even the stalwart rosemary bush has perished under the stabbing ice.


It has happened. I am tired of being cold.

I want to see my toes again. Ten, happy pink digits released from their boots and slippers, set free from their woolen socks, strolling barefoot through new green grass and clover.

I am tired of soup. I want to eat honeydew melon and fresh peaches.

I am tired of hot chocolate. I want lemonade and fruit punch.

I want to open my windows.

I want to feel the breeze in my hair and not worry that my ears will get cold.

I want to wear white linen and big straw hats.

I want to put a gardenia in my lapel and go on a picnic.

I want, no I need, to sit on a beach with a glass full of fizzy water, lulled to sleep by the crash of the waves.


I can only think it is time for such feelings. Growing up in a part of the world that experiences four distinct seasons, my body clock must by now be perfectly timed to the schedule of the earth, for I feel a shy, infinitesimal change just beginning to stir. It is there in the way that the light lingers a moment longer each day, dancing through the windowpanes, painting vernal shadows on the Morris wallpaper. It is present in the flock of robins that I saw in a neighbor’s front garden only yesterday, carefully tip-toeing along midst the patches of melting snow. And most telling of all, at times when they think no one listens, the tall trees are now humming a curious tune - deep and low, almost inaudible. I catch a bit of it just before sleep.

It is a song of Spring.


Painting above by George Frederick Watts


54 comments:

  1. Oooo, Pamela. You actually, really did send shivers through my body with the sentence ' the tall tree's are humming a curious tune-deep and low, almost inaudible '..... I feel it too Pamela... and I can't wait. XXXX

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  2. I'm with you on all of this...funnily enough I walked through the house without sheepskin slippers and wooly socks yesterday and thought how wonderful it would be to walk on warm sand right now... so i painted my toenails bright red and pretended for the time it took to dry that i was, then put back on the socks and slippers.....xx

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  3. The Highlands are grey a good deal of the time, one of the many things i love about them. But i passed a few pails of fresh tulips yesterday, outside a flower shop, so many colours. They brought a smile to my heart. Sometimes that's all it takes. :)

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  4. Oh, I'm right there with you on this. I'm thinking of the skirts I want to buy, and big floppy sandals as well. And for the sun to feel more than just a dot of heat in the far, far distance.

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  5. Oh I do hope spring is near... but here in the northeast, it's dangerous to succumb to spring-dreams quite this early. We are enjoying completely bare grounds which is remarkable at the time of year. I think we still have a bit of old-man-winter around for a while. Soups on for tonight.

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  6. As we discovered this week when spring comes it comes with trumpets blaring . From fleeces to shirt sleeve weather within four days.

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  7. Excellent! I so want Spring to arrive... SOON!

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  8. Pamela, I am with you here !! Absolutely brilliant post. Thank you.

    Have a fabulus week, best wishes !

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  9. Dear Pamela, As always, your writing is so moody and atmospheric and always accompanied with a well chosen illustration, often of a painting. Today it is by Watts who perfectly suggests what you are saying.

    I thought that you might like this by Coleridge:

    'And Winter slumbering in the open air,/Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!'

    Thank you so much for commenting on my latest posting to which I have left a reply.

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  10. Beautiful painting, beautiful post ;) Thank you for sharing the extraordinary thoughts with ys ;)

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  11. Yes...I feel the same way...I want to walk through my house and not having to close all doors behind me to keep the warmth in...or RUN to the bathroom on icy cold floors..Our house is very old,and it wouldn't be wise to heat every room...so I do alot of running through cold corridors and I have enough of it...I want to stroll...

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  12. Oh, I am right there with you, my season's clock is ticking too, just a few days ago the gentle spring fairy had settled down on the swing in the garden...did you see her?
    Maybe she flew right to your neighborhood!
    If not, why don't you visit and say hello to her?

    XX
    Victoria

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  14. I love this post! I, too, am feeling the song of spring for all the same reasons. But alas, I live many hours north for now and my outside world isn't cooperating as quickly as yours which is throwing off my much confused seasonal clock. I'm trying to be brave....

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  15. A wonderful post for the last days of winter, and especially today, Sunday, which is grey with threats of more snow here in the midwest. I am always in awe of how you find such wonderful and appropriate paintings to hang over your words. Just beautiful.

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  16. So beautifully put Pamela. My body clock too in attuned to four strong distinct seasons although it has had to endure 60 years of a land with seasons like a washed out old tea towel where the patterns have become indistinct. I long for the familiar budding burst of shades of green after a cold, white winter, for summer rains and meadows of green, not there dusty brown fields where cattle need hand feeding instead of growing fat on the bounty of the land. Above all, I long for autumn where the summerheat and dry has not claimed the leaves of the trees and sent them into premature sleep but shows off their glory in a wealth of gold, of amber, red and purple.

    Your descriptions of the seasons fill me with a child-like delight.

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  17. Oh all so true! I was only saying to George today, that I am now so ready for the next season. I am always ready for the next season after enjoying the present one! I know exactly what you mean, you get a feeling.. a sense. Oh you did make me laugh with your comment on my blog about getting into the wrong car, I have similar tale to tell soon! suzie. xxx

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  18. Oh all so true! I was only saying to George today, that I am now so ready for the next season. I am always ready for the next season after enjoying the present one! I know exactly what you mean, you get a feeling.. a sense. Oh you did make me laugh with your comment on my blog about getting into the wrong car, I have similar tale to tell soon! suzie. xxx

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  19. How beautiful is this song of spring.
    I cannot wait
    Spring is the Queen of all seasons♥

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  20. After a gray start to the day and a downpour or two -- the Sun finally shined here at Rosemary Cottage. So I grabbed my gardening gloves and headed out to start cleaning up the front garden -- so nice to work in warm patch of sunlight! Looking forward to Springtime too!

    Jan at Rosemary Cottage

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  21. i KNOW.....! BUT, i'm noticing equinox-al signs, like about 12 hours of light a day ALready!

    brought home a big bouquet of red tulips and yellow daffodils..we've watched them open on the table, getting bigger and brighter...like our days.
    however, nothing so glorious as the sun's heat on those bare/painted toes!
    verification word: WAYFIL..soon we will be wayfill of warm light??

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  22. We are unused to the amount of snow we areexperiencing this winter and at first it was fun and pretty. But now everyone I meet when out in the village is complaining and desperate like you for some good eweather. A bit of sunshine and a hint of spring does one the world of good.

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  23. Yes, it was a long winter, and we are tired and anxious for the next step.

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  24. Pamela,
    You certainly know how to conjure up such song. I could almost hear the birds chirping, feel the welcome breeze of the open window and the beginnings of Spring waft inside my head!
    I love Spring and can hardly wait for the relief of the cacophony symphony of sounds!

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  25. Oh Pamela
    Your words are sweet and melancholy and ache in my heart as they don't bode well for me.. ha ha I'm feeling that change in the air also.. but for me .. that will spell winter.. I'm not ready yet to give up the daylight and summer days... I hope spring comes quickly for you and my summer lingers... Beautiful prose once again!! xx Julie

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  26. I feel this way 12 months out of the year!

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  27. Beautiful song of spring and I'm with you.

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  28. I'm with you! I can't wait for Spring now, I'm so tired of the grey and cold - it is coming though - very slowly - I saw a dove today collecting twigs for its nest - surely a good sign:)

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  29. I couldn't agree with you more.
    Gray in New York too.
    Loved the photo of you and Edward in Winter.
    All best wishes from Buster too.

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  30. Your writing is so lyrical and magic. You should be writing a book.
    We're in our "first spring" here in Oregon, but the rain is supposed to come back tomorrow. For today I sit with the door open to the deck, listening to the robins and the waterfall and the cats chatting with each other. When the rains come back, they will be growing rains, warm and coaxing.
    I'm sending you warmth and green and fragrance of Spring. And a suggestion, go splurge of some brilliant, lovely, smelly cut flowers. It helps.
    Cindee

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  31. I'm usually fine with the grey and the cold and the soups...until about the end of February...when the spring song starts in my body too...Love your words...

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  32. I am all for linen and large straw hats. Also sitting on a warm beach, fizzy drink in hand.
    I went to Whole Foods yesterday and brought berries and melons from South America, and for dinner we had a huge fruit salad. Refreshing and delicious. It helped that the sun was shining bright and we sat on the patio.
    Sending spring thoughts your way.

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  33. Spring has been threatening to thaw my wintery veins for some time now, even as temperatures plummet toward zero tonight. The yellow crocus that had bloomed against the back of the house are covered under a fresh layer of snow. The birds that had been singing their courtship songs have grown quiet and, it seems to me, sullen. But it's probably just me…
    In short, spring cannot come soon enough!

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  34. I want to have that too ! I love the way you say it. I have hope that you will mention Spring in lovely words soon :)

    Have a cosy day !

    xo
    Anci

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  35. I'm so with you . . . but then I have been longing for spring since December! Ah, your writing is so beautiful. What delicious melancholy! (The picture is perfect.)

    I was just looking at a catalog full of spring colors: bare brown shoulders, delicate sandals, delicious sorbet colors.

    We arrived back in England yesterday, and we were pelted with fat clumps of snow all day. Even so, there are a few tiny purple iris beginning to peek out . . . yea, for spring!

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  36. Love your post, Pamela - you do paint such a beautiful picture with your words. As you are, I am looking forward to Spring and am encouraged because I saw a flock of robins yesterday in a crabapple tree in town. Of course, they'll have to endure more snow, I'm afraid, but somehow they seem to survive and bring us hope that the warmer weather is on the way!!
    Judie

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  37. Yup, life gets tedious, don't it? And then I come across a post like this - and suddenly it aint so tedious after all! Excellent post.

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  38. Your blog is so beautiful. I'm glad to be a new follower. Rosemary

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  39. Yes, oh, yes! I'm so tired of the grey and the cold. Only the snowdrops have managed to peep through around here but there are some daffodils in a vase just ready to burst out of their buds - can't wait! Thank you for your lyrical words with the promise of spring ...

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  40. I saw birds parallel flying and thought soon soon Spring will be here. Then today we had a snow flurry. I think Spring is overdue here too.

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  41. That is wonderful Pamela....every word of it!
    You could not have said it any better. I am taking my cue from the bird life around here and they are definitely ready to come out and play!
    Jeanne :)

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  42. Was snowing south of me today. I'm right with you...can hardly wait for spring. Sick of soups and stews and not being able to go out and walk. That darn groundhog!

    Catherine

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  43. I saw some confused Robins the other day, Pamela, picking up and dropping dead leaves.

    Patience, I say.

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  44. I loved this post and the beautiful painting which of course inspired you to write the lovely words!

    My fuzzy socks are showing holes they've been worn so much this Winter!

    Snow again, perhaps!!

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  45. It is that time, isn't it? It comes with the snowdrops for me. And yes, bare feet are something to be longed for at this time of year.

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  46. I so agree with you Pamela. There is a distinct frisson of something in the air when spring is approaching. Perhaps it is a feeling rather than something substantial but I am always glad to know that it is there. Perhaps our connection to the earth and the seasons is stronger than we think.

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  47. I am ready too Pamela...so ready to feel that spring in my step, xv.

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  48. beautifully put, perfect words. I sit here in my studio and my eyes are ever drawn to the window. . .just checking for signs x

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  49. I completely concur. Sunday was so glorious with temps in the 50's and sunshine but then we were hit with the freezing cold and snow again this week...Oh, to have tea in the garden again...Alas, it is near:)

    I also want to jump into that Watts painting with those beautiful jewel tones.

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  50. Lovely post, all those summery things sound so appealing. I hope you are right about Spring being just around the corner.

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  51. It is there, and you're right, it is the season inside us too. It's ok to be ready for it. Me - a lover of winter - I'm ready too!

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I love to read your comments! Each and every one! Though I'm always reading your comments, I may not respond in the comment section. If you want to write me directly, you may do so at pamela@pamelaterry.net. Thank you for reading!