Ah Spring, Beautiful Spring

Spring is finally here...or, at least it will be at 12:57 pm.  I can wait a few more hours for the celebration to begin.  It's been a long, hard winter, and I think we all relieved that it is finally, or almost, over.  They are forecasting more cold weather next week and the chance of a snow/rain event next week, but I can deal with that.  At least I know it won't be that endless sheet of ice we have grown so used to.

Claude Monet "Springtime'

So, as we enter this season of renewal may the wonder of Spring fill your heart with love, joy, and peace.

 Frost-locked all the winter,
    Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits,
    What shall make their sap ascend
    That they may put forth shoots?
    Tips of tender green,
    Leaf, or blade, or sheath;
    Telling of the hidden life
    That breaks forth underneath,
    Life nursed in its grave by Death.

    Blows the thaw-wind pleasantly,
    Drips the soaking rain,
    By fits looks down the waking sun:
    Young grass springs on the plain;
    Young leaves clothe early hedgerow trees;
    Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits,
    Swollen with sap put forth their shoots;
    Curled-headed ferns sprout in the lane;
    Birds sing and pair again.

    There is no time like Spring,
    When life's alive in everything,
    Before new nestlings sing,
    Before cleft swallows speed their journey back
    Along the trackless track--
    God guides their wing,
    He spreads their table that they nothing lack,--
    Before the daisy grows a common flower,
    Before the sun has power
    To scorch the world up in his noontide hour.

    There is no time like Spring,
    Like Spring that passes by;
    There is no life like Spring-life born to die,--
    Piercing the sod,
    Clothing the uncouth clod,
    Hatched in the nest,
    Fledged on the windy bough,
    Strong on the wing:
    There is no time like Spring that passes by,
    Now newly born, and now
    Hastening to die.

  Christina Georgina Rossetti