March(ing) Into Spring

Whew, finally we’re out of a long shortest month of the year. Not that winter is over, not by any means. Snow is piled up everywhere, overnight temperatures are frigid but morning light arrives earlier and, according to weather reports, we have more than 11 hours of daylight. Hurray!

Frozen vistas belie the fact that much is going on underground…nutrients are busy redistributing as they ready themselves to support perennials and the snow provides insulation to the soil below. When spring arrives microbes wake up faster and get back to work.

And You…what is going on in the background of your life? I’m aware that for many, simply getting through the winter is the thing which is going on. That and trying to moderate ‘doom scrolling.’ What one person considers ‘staying informed’ is another’s fast track to increased anxiety and a sense of helplessness and/or rage. Let’s be kind to ourselves.

I have some suggestions if the above is pertinent to you. I hope a few might be new and interesting to You, Here goes:

• Bella Freud’s “Fashion Neurosis” on YouTube. She uses clothes as the entry to deep conversations with well-known individuals who lie on her couch. Some of my favorites have been Esther Perel, Kristin Scott Thomas, John Malkovitch, Kate Moss, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Zadie Smith,and Annie Liebovitz. She also has a new substack which you might want to check out (tho I prefer to listen and watch her and the guests on the couch who, as always happens in analysis, are more unfiltered when there is no expectation to have eye contact.)

• Apple’s “Tehran”, now on Season 3. It’s an amazingly engaging thriller about Iran, Israel, the CIA, power dynamics, treachery, and love. And I’ll add, now that Israel and the USA have bombed Tehran, timely.

• The “News Agents” on YouTube with Emily Maitlis who did the first interview with the then Prince Andrew which opened the whole can of worms regarding Jeffrey Epstein. Colleagues Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall are the others in this trio. I find their commentary on world events with a focus on the UK and US excellent. They don’t always agree with one another and when they don’t, it’s a modeling on how firm yet respectful disagreement can be done.

• Garden Planning…it’s gardening catalog arrival time

• Birding from inside or out of doors. I’m still buying seeds for them and have much to view. Gold Finches and Grackles are showing up more often as are the pairs of Cardinals. Soon the males will be feeding the females which is a signal that it’s breeding season. The dawn chorus has begun although it’s more like tuning up before the full effect in April. Are you experiencing the same? Owls are hooting to one another and it’s peak breeding season for them. Nature takes care that fledglings have food…this means that as the owls fledge, nestlings from other species will be prey. I know, I wish it was otherwise, too.

• Trying a new hobby. I mentioned that I’ve returned to playing with paint…water colors to be specific. What’s keeping your creative muscles sustained?

In the background for me is home renovation which is not for the purpose of changing of decor…it’s new windows, doors, a heat pump in the attic, outside insulation under the siding, none of it exciting but necessary. I’m not paying for this directly nor will I be paying for 2 one week decampments to a hotel at the end of April and early May. I’m grateful for the upgrade but it will interfere with the logistics of getting a 4 legged companion. If things work out, this will be home to a 1 yo miniature wire haired dachshund, Here is a peek:

Sorry about the size of the photo…I have yet to master shrinking.

If you’ve followed the comments, you might know that I found the ‘Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” by Kiran Desai too long. and with more characters, past, present, and incidental than I could keep track of so at about the 75% of 700 pages mark, I skimmed to the end. The next undertaking had a worse outcome; ‘On the Calculation of Volume” Book 1 of 7 by Solvej Balle: it’s like ‘Groundhog Day’…the same day, November 18 , is experienced day after day, month after month, year after year. Arrgh. What was I thinking. It’s still unfinished, next to the bed for insomnia reading. My neighbor friend just brought over a collection of Billy Collins poems “Dog Show”. Now this is what I need. When that’s done, I have “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain” by David Eagleman. I’d rather explore consciousness than ponder colonizing Mars.

Robert Frost, New England poet, whose poems I had to learn and recite when a school girl, won 4 Pulitzer prizes. Here is one on early March which I like very much and hope you do, too.

“In Praise of March” by Robert Frost

In praise of March, the month unique,
Where winter’s chill begins to wane,
Its cruel grip now slowly fades,
As March’s glory we attain.

The icicles drip from roofs and eaves,
And brooks thaw with a gentle sound,
As March brings warmth and soft caress,
The hopeful heartbeat of the ground.

For March is a month of transformation,
As spring ascends with boundless bliss,
A time of shifting, turning tides,
When nature’s true beauty we cannot miss.

Here’s to early March. The light has returned. Let your light shine, Dear One.

And don’t forget to add your comments…