Easter Weekend

After having spent last weekend with my parents at my place, I can't say I was too terribly excited to go visit them at their place this weekend. (Not that I don't love my parents, but seeing too much of them just annoys the hell out of me.) But it was Easter, and I haven't been home since before it was too cold to do any outside stuff. So off we went. And I have to say, it's much more springy in Southern MO. There are more dogwoods, which from 20+ years of exposure to during the beginnings of spring, just shout "Spring is here!!!" And there is a decided lack of dogwoods here in the north, for whatever reason. (Maybe if I went to a more wooded area than the actual town of Kirksville, I would see some.)

Of course, thunder storms also come with spring, and there was an average of 3 a day all weekend. Luckily, Camden had his rain boots (and it was warm enough for me to go without shoes!) so we got to splash around in the mud and puddles and grass. We caught two toads, which were put into the toad house we made last spring; one left fairly quickly, the other stayed for most of the afternoon. (We tried to feed the second one some earthworms, but I think he was rather pissed off with us and not interested in eating.)

All in all, it wasn't a bad weekend. My dad made Camden a slingshot from a hickory stick, inner tube, and a piece cut from a leather work glove (whose partner is MIA). I also heard some news about my brother, although I think I would have rather not heard. (He called the parentals and was telling them that "it's just like the movies. You're running and you can see the bullets hitting the ground around your feet." Uh, no, I don't want to hear about people shooting at him. Four months and he's home for good, though.) And while Easter was cold and rainy, Camden still got an egg hunt (inside, in the living room) and a TON of candy, along with a Transformers backpack.

Summer Skies

Today, I started dreaming of summer. After school, Camden and I went to play at the park. It was around 60 degrees, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing. It was cool without being cold. The grass is just beginning to really turn green. Oh, and there were clouds. Great, beautiful, puffy, white cumulus clouds. I spread out a blanket and just lay there watching them for about five minutes (before Camden was able to get me to get up and play). Watching clouds always reminds me of when I was a kid, during the summer I would watch clouds from the roof of an old milk barn that had been lost in a hillside forest. (Just recently, the owner of that hillside forest has cleared out all the trees, so it's just a hillside of scrub and cows and ruins of a house and milk barn. Such a shame, to lose all those trees.) Anyway, the sky reminded me of summer and I had/have a longing for a lazy summer afternoon, where nothing is due for class and I have nowhere to go and nowhere to be. Where time can be spent doing something as simple as lying in the grass watching the clouds go by as they morph from shape to shape. It takes me away, staring into the clouds, so that I am also a cloud, floating in the endless sea of blue skies with children running to stay in my shadow or to stay out of my shadow.

Alas, it is only just spring. We're still waiting for the soil to warm enough to plant our garden. (Which I am very excited about. I absolutely can't wait!) And waiting for it to be consistently warm enough to play outside. Ah, summer. Why must you be so far away?

Are we there yet? (Spring edition)

Daffodowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbour:
"Winter is dead."

by A.A. Milne

Winter's End (almost)

(Photo by thanq)

At this time of the year, we are solidly in Winter's grasp. It's as though she knows her time is growing short, so she begins to throw everything she can at us. Imbolc is just around the corner, which is the beginning of the end of winter. This is the time of the year when the natural world is quietly slumbering and slowly gathering its strength to awaken in a few short weeks in a riot of color and life and breath. A time where I begin to get Spring fever and crave green and warm sunshine and gentle rains. It's as though I can feel the energy gathering in the world around me, and I can feel its affect on me.

I've been cleaning and organising my house almost nonstop for two weeks now. Not to say that it is any cleaner or more organised than when I began, but well, I've been trying. ;) Of course, this has probably been helped by having out of town visitors and new furniture (a "junior" loft bed for Camden) which facilitated a whirl of furniture moving (SFMA, anyone?) and other organisation. But I'm still ascribing most of the fault to the building energy I feel every time I step outside.

I've also been channeling some of this energy into more creative outlets. As I said in an earlier post, my senior recital is coming up this Spring. And I've been spending lots of time in the practice room preparing and learning the pieces I've chosen. I feel like I've gotten a lot of work done in the short time since the semester started.

I can also sense some of the effects it's having on Camden. We are slowly making strides to clearer speech. He's still not as vocal as a "typical" 4.5 year old, but he is more vocal than he was a year ago. But more than that, he's beginning to add end sounds (previously missing without prompting) to his words. Sometimes it's the wrong sound (rote or roke as opposed to rope), but any attempt is a step in the right direction.

I want to buy some crocuses. And, uh, let them "escape" into my (rented) yard. Crocuses are my favorite part of Spring, because they are its heralds. I smile every time I see them, especially when I see them poking up through the snow. Anyway. I hope you all are enjoying this time of quiet energy. I am!

Finally, Spring!

I've found Spring! I only had to drive 200 miles south to find it. And look what else I found:

That's right! I've finally found my elusive crocuses! So far, that's the only flower I've found, though.


It's spring break, and I've taken the chance to visit my parents, who seem to be living in the tropics compared to my arctic home in NEMO. Today, Cam and I were able to get out and enjoy the warmth, going to thrift shops and also to Haha Tonka, which is quite possibly my most favourite place in the world. Haha Tonka has just about everything one could ask for: a castle, amazing rock formations, beautiful glades, long rambling trails, and a spring. The spring is where it gets its name: Haha Tonka means "Laughing Waters," which is what the spring sounds like, I suppose.


The castle was built in the early 1900's, and along the path are displays with gorgeous pictures of it in its prime. There's also a water tower, which pumped water up from the spring.
Sadly, fires in both the water tower (two) and in the main castle left it unlivable, and, as you can see, it now lies as an empty shell, a fading shadow of its former glory.


Yesterday I did some spring cleaning, and quite possibly finally said goodbye to my childhood. I was trying to clean out my childhood bedroom, trying to decide what to throw away and what to keep, and I came across a few of my journals. As I read through them, I was horrified. I have come so far from that poor, scared child I was at 12, 13, 15. But sitting there, reading that, brought back all of those dark thoughts I thought I'd left behind. I realised then that I had to get rid of that negativity. So my journals, once so precious, found their new home in the trash. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Those were once my only friends... But I've grown beyond who and what I was. And I can't really say I want those reminders hanging around, even if only at my parents' house.

Grow your own flower garden

Click here and then click about randomly or even not-so-randomly to grow a virtual flower garden.

Because I know we're all pining away for spring.

Frühling, komm jetzt bitte! Mir geht's nicht gut ohne dich! Komm bald!

Surprise!

First of all, happy Imbolc! Second of all, I was utterly surprised to hear that the groundhog had predicted six more weeks of winter! I know it's just a silly tradition, but it was one I looked forward to every year as a child. Since high school, though, I'd pretty much forgotten about it, except for that wonderful movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.

But seriously, though, all of my signs have been practically screaming at me that Spring is very much on its way. Camden's sun on Sunday (hah!) Yesterday I saw a flock of geese flying north (in a one sided V.) Today, the salad green plants I planted on Sunday sprouted. Hence my surprise when the furry rodent forecast 6 weeks of winter!

On Facebook, where I was lamenting this fact in my status (along with wishing everyone a happy Imbolc/Groundhog Day/Candlemas), my oldest brother said that some cultures kill and eat the groundhogs that predict the continuation of Winter. My high school percussion instructor suggested sammiches. So, groundhog sammich, anyone?