Spring is Ready to be Sprung (Friday Five)

I don't think spring is ready to be sprung at all, but 3dogmom writes a Friday Five from a place in which it might actually happen someday:

 

Here in Nashville the annual Antiques and Garden Show is getting underway.  The temperatures are more cold and windy than is typical, and the garden displays with colorful spring blooms are going to be tonic for many of the souls that visit the show this weekend. Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted another six weeks of winter when he saw his shadow, but spring is on the minds of many!

 

With that in mind,

 

1) What do you anticipate with the coming of spring?

 

This year, most of all, I anticipate being able to walk again!  I should be walking, albeit probably some difficulty, by the time the March 20 equinox rolls around, which means that I will be driving, working regularly, and able to enjoy at least short portions of my usual walks as the birds begin to make their way north.  The male red-wing blackbirds show up at the end of February, and my plan is to be out at the Little Lakes to greet them!

 

2) Is there anything you will miss about winter?

 

I cannot conceive of a single thing to miss about winter.  Especially this one.  If I had the wherewithal to move to a region with no winter, I would be packed in five minutes.

 

3) Is there an occasion on the horizon to which you’re looking forward?

 

I make a silent retreat for a week each year, and I was scheduled to be doing so ~ ahem ~ right now.  Actually, I was supposed to be returning home today.  When we made those plans many months ago, it was my spiritual director whose health concerned me.  After all, he's 83!  But, alas, I was the one who had to cancel.  We are rescheduled for the first week of April, which means that I need to be able to drive a long way and walk at least some distance, but I am looking forward, tentatively and with some apprehension, to early spring at Georgetown University, and to a week of prayer and conversation with the person who accompanied me through the Spiritual Exercises.

 

4) Do you have a favorite spring memory?

 

When I was a little girl, our family lived in Vero Beach FL during the winters and springs of my kindergarten and first grade years.  Starting in boarding school, I spent all of my spring breaks in Vero with my grandparents, a tradition that continued after my husband and I married. Our last trip there took place in December, as my grandfather was dying, so that we could take our three-month-old boys to see him.  After that, we began our own family tradition of springtime weeks in St. Augustine.  So I have about a zillion wonderful springtime memories, all of them involving sand and ocean and people of four generations precious to me.

 

5) Do you have a favorite spring flower/bloom, and if so, what makes it special to you?

 

My grandmother had planted her hillsides and woods with clumps of daffodils, so they always make me think of her and our lives in a beautiful spot in southwestern Ohio. I love all sorts of daffodils, but I especially love the ones that look like this:

 

It's 1 degree F here right now. Have a great Friday, and stay warm!