the blue muse

To me, nothing says sunshine like a daffodil.

It’s like those bulbs just absorb as much of it as they can, store it all up, condense it into a beautiful blossom, and send it back out to the world.

This weekend, I am going to the Philadelphia Flower Show with my oldest best girlfriend. And by that I don’t mean she is old, she is actually younger than I am, but we have known each other a very long time. Besides enjoying the scenery, which is always fabulous, most of our time will be spent giggling.

That just happens when we are together. In fact, by the end of the trip, almost everyone else on the bus will be looking at us as if we are crazy. But we won’t mind, we will be having too much fun to care.

I say this from experience.

The day after we visit the show, we head over to Longwood Gardens, which is, in my opinion, even better than the Flower Show. I just love it there.

More than anything, I am looking forward to being bombarded by color. Spring is most definitely on its way here, but it will still be awhile before anything is in bloom. This is the perfect way to get a little fix to hold me over until that happens.

I’ll be taking lots of photos to share when I get back. The blue poppies at Longwood are always a favorite, they are the color of a summer sky.

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Wishing you a weekend filled with color and sunshine and giggles.

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It’s a color that’s still hard to find these days, well, actually, it’s color itself that is hard to find just now. There have been blue skies these past few days, and oh-so-welcome sunshine, and when I went running last Friday, there was this, a small patch of moss growing on a log in the woods, not whispering at all really, but screaming its presence out like a beacon.

It made me smile.

Spring has begun to whisper to all the trees and flowers, waking them up ever so gently with a little nudge here and a word of encouragement there.

She isn’t ready to get dressed for the party just yet, but she is bringing things out of the closet one piece at a time, in preparation. I like to think she dropped this small green kerchief as an offering, a promise, a sign of hope.

Soon, she says, soon.

If I put my ear to the ground, I hear music. A symphony of fresh, a concerto of color.

And for now, I am content just to listen.

Over the weekend, first my husband and then my son asked, “Are those lilacs?” No, though I wish they were. But what smells more like Spring than a hyacinth?

You wouldn’t have known that Spring is just around the corner by looking outside, we had high winds on Saturday and then snow on Sunday. But it was a cozy, stay-inside couple of days, good for catching up on chores and beginning a bit of Spring cleaning.

I’m also beginning to gear up for our first jewelry show of the year in April, beginning to gear up for spending time in the garden, and on Friday I went running for the first time in what seemed like forever. Of course, on Friday, it was 50 degrees outside. Still, we are making baby steps, it is freezing again today, but by Wednesday, it is supposed to be 60. So there’s that. March has already been more colorful that February.

Blue skies will soon be a regular commodity rather than an occasional treat. The birds knew this well before I did, the robins and goldfinches also made an appearance on Friday.

I guess it’s a good sign that there’s not much more to talk about than the weather just now, although I feel rather boring.

Hopefully, I’ll be waking up in more ways than one as the temperatures rise, sending out new growth, reaching for the sun.

Sending you wishes for a week filled with the scent of Spring…

The red-winged blackbirds have come home. To me, this is the official sign that Spring has sprung. It was a remarkably mild winter, and for that I am grateful. Still, I look forward to sunshine, and spending time outside, in the sun and in my garden. I like grey, but after a while, it seems to coat everything in life with a sense of dullness.

So, here’s to color. We’re not there yet, but soon, soon. Next weekend, I am going to the Philadelphia Flower Show, and oh my, there will be more color than I can take in. It should be just what I need to tide me over until the landscape here sheds its drab winter clothes.

What fun do you have planned for the weekend?

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And the other stuff…

Yesterday, Google discontinued Google Friend Connect, and I didn’t find out until it was already deleted. So, for those of you who followed me from there, my blog will be gone from your list. Apparently Blogger blogs still have the GFC feature, but since I am on WordPress, I do not. If you like, you can manually add me into your Google Reader list

https://www.thebluemuse.com

Here are some other current options:

facebook

twitter

google+

If you have any other suggestions as far as how you prefer to follow blogs, please let me know.

It feels lonely here without seeing all your little avatars on my sidebar.

I don’t always have time to respond to comments, but I want you to know
how much I appreciate the fact that you visit, read, comment, support.
It means a lot.

xoxo

I am participating in Kim Klassen’s Beyond Layers Course, and this week’s prompt is to share 10 truths about myself. So here goes…

1. February has become my least favorite month. Enough said.
2. Yesterday, I realized how much birds have become a part of my life. And I wonder what this means.
3. I can’t wait to get outside in my garden and feel the sunshine on my back. One of my favorite things to do is clear a whole day and head out there with my favorite music and nothing but time.
4. I’m going to be 50 this year. It’s also a leap year. It feels like I need to do something especially significant before next January.
5. Lately, I crave spicy food more than I crave chocolate. This feels blasphemous.
6. The older I get, the more I pay attention to Nature. I wonder if it’s this way for everyone, or if it’s just me. (Actually, I wonder that about a lot of things.)
7. I am a procrastinator. I am trying to change this. It’s not easy.
8. Words are my favorite clothes to wear in life.
9. Periwinkle.
10. I am imperfect. I can’t have it all. Or do it all. I’m learning to make better choices.

And there you have it.

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Today is Leap Day. In my opinion, that means we have a whole extra day to appreciate life. And that is a very good thing indeed.

Enjoy.

you can see the forest through the trees.

sometimes,
you are temporarily blinded.

sometimes,
you have to climb a little higher to get the best view.

sometimes,
you have to look at what is right in front of you
and appreciate it for just exactly
what it is…

beautiful.

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if tomorrow

has a shape,

this is it.

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you have to look hard to find it,
pink and purple, blue and orange, yellow and green.

sometimes, you have to buy it.

flowers from the market, pretty bits of paper from the craft store,
a floral scarf.

but i can’t be mad at february for being grey,
forced to stand there in the cold and mud and slush
doing nothing but waiting.

it’s not her fault, she being the shortest month
that always, always becomes the longest month.

i’m sure that given a choice,
she would have preferred to be june.

perhaps she needs flowers more than i do, after all.

next time, i will buy us each a bouquet.

Late winter creeps in and the birds are hungry. It has been a mild winter, but even so, the truth of it is we are all starved for sunshine, color, new growth. Change.

My crow family has been stopping by more and more frequently, adding members to their group as well as black to the veil of grey that is a February landscape. This is a period of waiting. Scrounging. Surviving. Looking forward to the season of plenty.

I find myself once again surprised at the way we fool ourselves into thinking we are so separate from nature as we rattle around in our lives filled with technology and comfort and convenience.

But when it comes right down to it, we’re not so different, these birds and I, both clinging to precarious perches, eyes trained on the prize of tomorrow. Weathering storms to make it through. Hanging on, toughing it out, not giving up. These chickadees must work hard at staying alive.

And yet, have you ever seen one that didn’t look happy? I haven’t. On the coldest of days I can step outside at almost any time and hear a chickadee break into song, all the while getting on with the business of life. Never stopping, never whining, never giving up. Never expecting anything more.

Simply happy to be alive. To watch the sun rise. To fly.

There’s a lesson for me in there, somewhere.

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it’s all part of the circle.

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