Liquid sunshine drips
Chickadees sing in concert
Valdez in springtime
I had great fun last weekend taking a spring creative writing workshop with Lisa Sparrell at the Whitney Museum. As we were reading various quotes about spring by assorted famous people, we decided that it would an interesting exercise to spend five minutes writing our own proverbs, aphorisms, etc. about spring in Valdez. Resisting the urge to pen a line or two about emerging dog doo, I came up with the above haiku (I think it even has the proper number of syllables per line). The other bit I came up with that I thought was marginally good was "rain falls on dirty white snow, washing away the sins of winter." You didn't really expect brilliance in a matter of mere minutes, did you?
Continuing the spring theme, I went on a walk along the bike path past the hospital and around town during lunch yesterday. Since this is the time of year in which we actively search out any sign that indicates spring is coming - a glimpse of green, the merest budding of leaves, snow melting in dark corners - I decided to capture images of spring with my Android as I went. I've included the best of them (or at least the ones that were in focus) here.
The skunk cabbage is blooming; can the bears be far behind?
I always love the first pussy willows.
Pink pyrolla, aka wintergreen, stays green under the snow and give us our first spring leaves.
An abundance of catkins.
Is anything prettier than the first spring crocus?
Perhaps Robert Frost best described April for us: The sun was warm but the wind was chill./You know how it is with an April day.
