Progress of Spring

Most of last week was sunny and warm, and it almost became a tough job to keep up with the progress of spring! 

Last Thursday, April 3rd, I found that the wood anemones had shown up in a half-wild woodland spot that I sometimes walk by.

 

Scilla could also be seen here and there, and I also spotted the first dandelions.

And freshly painted park benches turned up here and there around the estate where I live!
 

On Friday I walked into town for a dentist appointment, and in the city park, I found various bulbous plants in bloom in the flower beds along the river, and also the big old magnolia tree.

 

 

Alas the pollen season is also here... (witch hazel tree in the park)

On my way back, I found cemetery staff busy planting pansies.

Another sign of spring is that the sea gulls arrived from the coast on 1 April.

 
Two gulls zoomed in from home, sitting on the roof of a neighbouring building. 

Over the weekend it turned a lot colder again, though. Still sunny, but frosty nights, and it was back to wearing a winter coat for walks in the day time, too. (Typical of April here: Almost summer temperatures sometimes in the afternoon, but still high risk of frosty nights, and might even snow a bit, even if it won't stay long on the ground...)

Dandelion Wine

"I mustn't forget, I'm alive, I know I'm alive, I mustn't forget it tonight or tomorrow or the day after that."

Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 

The dandelions are in bloom en masse along the path down by the river just now... It's a short path, but I often walk from one end to the other and then turn around and walk back again - just because I like the spot. (And ignoring the apartment blocks on the other side of the river the best I can, with the camera!) 



At home, I'm currently re-reading one of my favourite books (a classic I first read in my teens or early twenties - then in Swedish translation - but have returned to several times since then). This time I'm listening to it as audio book (recently bought), narrated by David Aaron Baker.

The book is set in 1928, in a small town in Illinois, and inspired by the author's own childhood memories. "A magical timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding" (quoting the blurb). The book title, Dandelion Wine, refers to the idea (or wish) of bottling memories just like home-made wine.


Each chapter is really a short story in itself (with Douglas sometimes the main character but sometimes just witness of events). One of my favourite chapters is about a short but sweet and special friendship between a young man and a 95-year-old lady. 

"We don't seem to have much time now."
"No, but perhaps there will be another time. Time is so strange and life is twice as strange. The cogs miss, the wheels turn, and lives interlace too early or too late. I lived too long that much is certain. And you were born either too early or too late. It was a terrible bit of timing. ---"