"I don't mind complaining about the weather.
It's fun and makes for good conversation."
Arlo Guthrie
Everywhere I went yesterday, people seemed to want to talk about the weather. Even the morning's bomb scare on the OSU campus wasn't as popular a subject as the blue, cloudless sky and warmer temperature. Talking about the weather is only natural, I guess, since it's the one thing we all have in common. We're all subject to it and, whether we complain or rhapsodize over it, we generally agree...
I'm determined to get out and do some gardening this spring. Now that I'm on this miracle anti-inflammatory, I should be able to plant and maintain my flowerbeds. I'd also like to plant a small vegetable garden. Nothing very taxing, mostly things that will grow in abundance so that I can give some of it away to friends: zucchini, spring onions, and maybe some muskmelons. Maybe I'll even get that front porch floor painted, too; I'm thinking of doing that this weekend, actually, if the weather holds out. The larger "if" is keeping the cats off of it.
Winter doesn't depress me. I like it, but it elicits a particular mood from me. It's the season for red wine, hot tea, hearty soups, candlelight, and baroque and 1960s folk music. I enjoy all that and decorate the house accordingly. Spring—or the promise of spring—creates a different mood. I put the light-colored throws and pastel quilts on the sofa, take down the dark panels that hang behind the lace curtains, and I start playing South American jazz and lighter, less self-conscious music. Most of the houseplants are moved out to the front porch, replaced by vases of flowers. Hot tea gives way to iced peach, lavender, and berry teas and I start making batches of frappuccini, which I decant into the Starbucks bottles that I've amassed.
The best part is that the front porch metamorphoses into an additional living spce. It's where our friends most like to gather on spring and summer nights, and where I'll probably write a fair number of entries for this blog.
I hope you're beginning to see some signs of spring wherever you are!
