The other day I walked in thick fog past the Spanish creche and through the park behind the UN buildings and as I came out by the river, the world looked like this.
And right there and then thanks to the magic algorithm of my cellphone's playlist Jeff Buckley's voice started to sing inside my head.
Today, the fog has disappeared and I cycled into town to exchange my library books, R refused to come along, too cold, he shrugged. In the library, I stuck to my list of selections and preorders, and with great willpower stayed well away from any of the interesting covers and titles that seemed to call out, pick me and me and me, too. Back home, I stood by the kitchen window, warming my hands on a cup of coffee, watching the jays pick up their daily dose of peanuts. The sky today is wide open, a perfect clear blue. In six weeks, there will be leaves on the trees.
Last night I could not fall asleep and finished reading "A Woman in the Polar Night" by Christiane Ritter, the account of an Austrian painter who accompanied her husband on a year-long hunting trip in the Arctic islands of Spitsbergen, Norway during the 1930s. "Our hearts are light, our thoughts are in a permanent state of upliftment. Nature seems to contain everything that man needs for his balance." She wrote during the darkest weeks of eternal night.
This morning, I heard woodpeckers.
January is usually our coldest month and spring can come as early as mid February so perhaps when this artic air expends itself it will be the end of really cold weather. Though we have had freezes in March. No woodpeckers apparent here yet but a red shouldered hawk was flying crying for a mate last week.
ReplyDeleteI am listening to a woodpecker work at a branch this very second. I don't think they leave here at all during the winter.
ReplyDeleteBeing in nature is a requirement of mine. Even just looking out from the screen porch into the trees and the bird feeder. How do people who constantly live in and on concrete not go insane?
Jeff Buckley and your beautiful river in the fog. Astounding.
ReplyDeleteLeaves on the trees! What a wonderful thought!
ReplyDeleteWe have woodpeckers that eat at my bird feeders and I love them. In the woods where I walk Heidi, there are pileated woodpeckers, even bigger. It's been too cold to walk these past two days but warms up tomorrow which will mean I can go back to the dog park with Heidi.
ReplyDeleteYou are fortunate to have such early springs. We have to wait until May, but that's okay. I'm trying to spend more time outside, regardless of the weather.