Spring Has Sprung

“For winter’s rains and ruins are over,

And all the season of snows and sins;

The days dividing lover and lover

The light that loses, the night that wins;

And time remembered is grief forgotten,

And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins.”

A.C Swinburne 1837-1909     Atalanta in Calydon {1865}

We’ve just had our coldest and wettest winter in Melbourne in over a decade, but on average it’s still half a degree warmer than the long-term temperature – go figure??

It is spring though and I can’t help but have a skip in my step.  I’ve found a beautiful poem about this season of ‘new beginnings’ in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (a gift from my parents, along with a treasured leather-bound dictionary for my 21^st.)

Clearly, I didn’t take the attached photo today (with rain teaming around me) but it’s a sure sign of things to come.

Look on the bright side, our water tanks are bursting, we’ve had a bumper snow season and even I have taken my children for the first time to experience this abundance of ‘ cold white fluffy stuff’. Admittedly, afterwards I have worn my ski jacket nearly every day…ha ha.

My seeds for change were sown in winter when I started writing my blog and decided to focus on reading and writing and doing what I enjoy.

I’ve almost clocked up 20 blog entries and disciplined myself to write every working day. If time is short, there is always some quote, picture, or thought I have been able to use to spark my blog topic.

 
·      I’ve finished Module 10 in Picture Book Writing and posted my manuscript for assessment (yippee.)
·      The Junior/Young Adult Novel Writing Course is my current focus.
·      Mrs. H (another dear friend) told me about Women of Letters* (a monthly afternoon for women that aims to preserve the art of letter writing.) There’s lots of laughs as comedians/special guests read out a scripted letter while you sip on your ‘chardy’. I hope to get a group of ‘Charlotte Brontes’ together for that.
·      I’ve also booked a lunch (going as a loner) to see Tara Moss (crime writer) speak in October.

So much to look forward to - I hope to see some spring shoots…

* www.facebook.com/pages/Women-Of-Letters/354205651666