Lately, I feel overbooked (though not yet overwhelmed). For no particular reason, a lot of to-dos have converged at once. The car needs new tires, somebody had better file both business and personal taxes, I’m at the end of my COVID booster window and contemplating plane travel (to see the new grandson, of course), and kitties need various kinds of attention from the vet. A lot of running around and feeling scattered.
I used to run around far more peripatetically than this, and work a full time lawyer job, but them days are gone and I do not miss them. I suspect this burst of activity on my part (I schedule the vet appointments, I book the new tires appointment, oddly enough) is simply because spring is upon us.
The sunlight is more abundant and brighter (before the leaves come out). The landscape is popping with colorful flowers and trees in bloom. I wake to sunshine in my room, even after the time change (all together: Boo, Hiss, on the time change). I spend less energy wrangling fire wood or simply maintaining body temperature.
In the midst of my busyness, I do not want to miss the joys of spring, because they are abundant. Three months from now, when I am whining about the humidity, the bugs, the noise (fans, farm equipment, pick up trucks, mama cows separated from their babies), please, bloggin’ buddies, remind me of the following:
The beautiful flowers and their bright colors. (Somebody should have pruned that forsythia bush by the barn. I wonder who it could be?). The pleasure of not having splinters in my fingers nigh daily from feeding the wood stove its many meals per day. The litter boxes going for days without use because it’s nice outside. The smell and feel of sun-dried laundry. The joy of working in my flower beds. The beautiful sound of the stream greeting me first thing in the morning and the equally lovely chorus of birdsong.
I will soon miss the wood stove and its luscious radiant heat, not only because the weather will warm up, but also because burning wood is a climate no-no, and the Big Job this year will be installing heat pumps.
For now though, I can put my tweezers away, and be grateful not to need them. I can ease up on the litter-box patrol (some), I can dress in less than three layers (whee!), and leave stuff in the car without fear that it will freeze if I don’t unload it before morning.
Spring is here (despite some backsliding in the forecast) and I am grateful.
What will you be taking for granted later that you are appreciating now? What did you take for granted that you lately hold in greater esteem?
I think it’s time for a give away. To three commenters, I will send the web store title of their choice, and that includes audio titles and a pre-order for The Dreadful Duke!
Right now I am appreciating the not-too-hot, not-too-cold weather that is frequently spring here in central Florida and I will miss them when the definitely-too-hot days arrive. I am appreciating the extra daylight but I, too, want to get rid of the constant time changes (just pick one already). I did get my taxes in and I’m in the midst of my yearly clump of all my doctors’ visits (March and April run one to two per week). I’m trying to decide if I can squeeze in my COVID booster next week or have to wait until late April (see constant doctors’ visits) because even though I usually have little to no reaction, my last shot was different so I like to make sure I have a couple of days with nothing scheduled just in case. I am currently holding “nothing scheduled” as something I took for granted but now am missing.
Happy Spring to us all!
Seems like this month is just busy all around. I don’t recall that from previous Marches, and I will be glad when this compression phase is over!
I am grateful that it is Spring, too. My crocuses are in bloom, the daffodils are popping up and it’s lighter at night. But, it’s raining…a lot. In July, when it’s hot and humid I will be wishing for rain!
I have a huge to do list for the week, insurance paperwork and club orders. It’s my last year working on the Specialty Ways and Means. I order sweatshirts,towels and bags with the clubs logo and work the table!
I am looking forward to getting my porch furniture out and getting some new plants. And I am looking forward to coffee with Greg on the back deck soon!
I know what you mean about wishing for rain. Last spring was so cold and wet around here, and then…. drought. The kind that trashed the corn crop and ran wells dry that had never gone dry before. Oh, did we ever miss that cold, wet spring by the end of July!
I live in Australia so entering Fall/ Autumn with its longer pants and long sleeve shirt under my shirt and adding blankets to my bed as it cools down.
I like that summer to fall transition the most. The heat finally breaks, the evenings aren’t so light, and I can finally sleep again. I’m usually ready for fall by the end of June. With the spring to summer, I do not want to see summer arrive. Purely miserable around here.
Those are beautiful flowers in the photos, Grace!
I am finding myself taking photos of the spring flowers on my walks these days. And I am appreciating being a comfortable temperature on my walks. Not too hot, not too cold. Summer and its sweatiness is coming!
On of my barn buddies calls that sweet spot weather. Some years we get maybe two weeks of it, other years, spring is slower to yield to summer, and I like that the best.
I usually say of my body that it is a Mediterranean body. The cold is getting worse and worse for me. I like to see the winter landscapes, the feeling of peace of nature in the snow, but being well sheltered when I contemplate and enjoy them.
In winter I’m at home dreessed like I’m going to the North Pole on an expedition, lots of layers of warm clothes and, as the house is big, there is only heating in the mos used rooms.
I finally love when spring comes and I’m shedding the extra layers of clothes and I can find that there was a body there, underneath all those layers! Mine…
I love the light, getting up in the mornings and see the day lightening up, instead of the lingering darkness in winter. I like the light in the day more and more.
Of course, lets not overdo it either, the excessive heat let me almost k.o.
…But yes, I feel more and more that my body is Mediterranean.
Pilar
I think I’m a more northerly type. I like to breathe colder air, like to sleep in a cold room, and like layers that keep me comfy whether I’m inside or out. I try not to use AC in the summer (Acclimate, Grace, acclimate!) and that gets trying where I live.
no longer taking for granted: cuddling my ginger cat. it’s so nice to be his person, his backrest, and yes, the wielder of the cat food cans
appreciating now: daffodils, crocuses, and snowdrops! the kitchen is no longer too cold to cook in because of insufficient furnace vents, and not yet too warm to tolerate hours long cooking projects.
I have one upstairs cat, Gus. I am stupid gone on him. He greets me in the morning and he’s purring beside me when I read myself to sleep at night. His personality is huge and particular, and when he decides that my pillow is the place to nap, I feel most privileged. Long live our personal cats!
I am appreciating all of the beautiful wildflowers that grace my home state of Texas every spring. Having lived the last 30 years in Maryland, I didn’t realize how much I missed this simple and amazing offering of nature. They don’t bloom long enough that you can take them for granted even though you know they’ll be back next year because they’re tough to kill off (Texan to the core).
P.S. Grace, two words: Litter Robot. (Best ridiculous amount of money I ever spent. They have one you can pair to your Rumba vacuum. Seriously.)
My mom moved from central PA to San Diego, and she said it took years, but eventually, she learned to spot the seasons even there. Not just by what was blooming, but by where the sun set over the water, by how the fauna behaved, what was migrating where. Not the big changes like we have in the northeast, but seasons all the same. She never did quite get over missing back East though.
I am strangely enjoying finally having some snow! We have had a crazy climate change winter with hardly any snow and spring like temps for months. Eventhough it has been nice to not slip on ice or shovel, the storm system coming this weekend will drop a foot of much needed snow/ moisture. It will be hard to appreciate it while having to be out in it, but as the dry winter has put us back in drought I will be thankful for it and enjoy how beautiful everything looks draped in white.
I still love to see the snow coming down, see the landscape turned white. We no longer get the monster storms we did years ago, but those were hard to appreciate. Stock up on everything, get cabin fever, track mud into the house in an attempt to elude cabin fever… see another storm in the forecast and stock up again. That got a little old when it also extended the school year by days and days.
I had been taking for granted the early sunrises before the miserable time change (that few people seem to like!). I’m an inborn early riser, frequently awakening by 5:00. The first thing I do when I wake is to blearily gaze out the patio door at the foot of our bed to see if it’s morning. With the time change, morning doesn’t arrive until nearly 7:30, so I either lounge in bed for over 2 hours (usually reading some great romance novel) or get up in the dark, which always seems to start my day on the wrong foot. There is been so much debate about eliminating the time change, and if it were to happen, which time should the US settle on. I say why not “split the baby” and enforce a time that is exactly halfway between daylight savings and standard time? That way no one will be wholly happy or wholly unhappy. As far as something I am appreciating now that I will take for granted later is the many sunny days (even though they start later than I prefer!). The grey days of winter are just so depressing that it will be nice to put those behind us. Stay safe. Stay well everyone!
I finally bought a happy light a few years ago, because like you, my winters have become gray. Not as cold, not as snowy, but I think more gray. By about mid-Jan, I need some bright light, and it does seem to help if I turn it on for a few hours in the morning.
Teachers! Especially preschool teachers. I am 75 years old, and the daughter of two career high school teachers. I always knew how hard they worked and how valuable their work was. But I do not think that i felt the same way about my daughters preschool teachers in the 1980s. That may have been because I was SO BUSY with my own job and life in general.
As the doting grandmother of a 3 year old…………….WOW!!! His teachers at his preschool deserve medals each and every day. Such patience. Such creativity. Such kindness. Such caring.
WOW. Hats off to all teachers!
Lil
A good teacher is a treasure, and we expect so much of our teachers these days. I agree with you 100!
Having lived in south Florida for the last 27 years, I miss all the lovely springtime events you are celebrating and the lovely pictures of flowers that do not grow here. Born and raised in New York,
(Long Island) I remember eagerly awaiting the sight of the first crocus to poke its head out of the snow, pansies with their vibrant spring colors and daffodils blooming on a hillside. Thank you Grace, for bringing these lovely memories to mind. While I don’t miss the winter and doubt I could manage a NY winter of snow, ice and cold, I do miss the change of seasons and all the joy of anticipating the arrival of new flowers. I was such an avid gardener in my younger days, even if my gardens were pots and tubs on an apartment terrace. It’s time to reclaim my love of gardening; finding things that will grow in this gardening zone. I’m learning that to love where I am takes me to where I want to be.
“To love where I am takes me to where I want to be.” I love that!
The cold nights and cool days are invigorating, yet I still choose occasionally to stay indoors, cozy and warm, rather than take advantage of Spring’s beauty. I will very soon regret these occasions as temperatures rise and the weeds and insects flourish. I am grateful for 3 of our 4 seasons and appreciate Grace’s reminders to pause, notice, rejoice.
Today is a cozy day for me. It’s just cold and wet and windy out there. I will feed livestock and so my mandatory outdoor chores, but mostly, I will be swilling de-caf tea and feeding the woodstove. In an earlier phase of my life, this would have been a baking day, to put some heat and scrumptiousness in the house too.
I often feel like spring doesn’t want to settle in for good. A friend has her birthday on March 13. We met for a beverage and a chat at a local coffee shop. It was 72° outside. We both bought iced beverages and sat outside. My birthday is March 20 and I was wearing fleece leggings and booties when I went out to dinner with my husband and son, winter had made a swift return. The trees were all set to bud out and then boom! several inches of snow. I usually get tired of sweaters and coats and am eager for short sleeves and no coat. I am impatient to be able to safely dig up my perennials and rose bushes to move them to their new home in my former childhood home. I am not leaving them behind because I spent decades cultivating them. They go where I go. The lilies of the valley need to return to their original home, I couldn’t find any that my mother had planted. I will be sweating while working in the garden in hot and humid July and August. I will probably be thinking about being impatient to dig up the plants while wearing a coat.