Blog address change and the Molasses Swamp!

Firstly, and very importantly, my Blog address has changed.

If you go to:

http://www.inthesunnyspot.org/

that will get you to this Blog.

If you have me in your dashboard, you don't need to worry, it's been changed for you already (as you've probably noticed if you're here.=])

If you have me in your sidebar - that will NOT take you to this page and you might want to change it.

(It's a long story...)

And, yes! Life can be a figurative and a literal "Molasses Swamp!" I wonder how many of you played the game Candy Land when you were children. I'm certain that all of my friends, here, in the US, have. Oh! What memories of delicious imagination! What a magic idea to wend one's way down a winding, looping path of bright and colorful squares through Peppermint Forests and by Peanut Brittle cottages with the occasional secret pass over the Gumdrop Mountains to speed you along. Of course, Princess Lolly and Queen Frostine are my absolute favorites. (Especially because, if you pulled their card, that meant that you would probably be rocketed to the lead. haha!)

Life being life, though,.....

did you know that, on the more modern game boards, they've changed the "Molasses Swamp" to the "Chocolate Swamp"??? Shocking and sad!!! It was, after all, tradition!

Unfortunately, I have more shocking and surprising news for you! Many of you know of my sweet baby bunny rabbit that came home with me, last year. We named her Flopsy because of definite flopping tendencies but...

... it turns out, Flopsy is, actually a Jeffrey!

He's gone totally to seed - look at that 'five o' clock shadow'!!!

Then!

Some of you have followed me long enough to remember that scandalous incident with our neighbor, George*, the beaver, and our gorgeous, weeping cherry tree, last April first!

....the tree that we'd planted the previous fall and had been watching expectantly all winter for it's first blooms - gone!

We never did find the carcass. We think it was devoured! (Gruesome, isn't it?)

*for those of you not familiar with American History, it is legend that George Washington, our revered first president said, when he was a young boy, "I cannot tell a lie! I chopped down the cherry tree with my little axe."

The sad and unbelievable remains!

Well, last spring, for Mother's Day, Tom felt very sorry for me, because of my huge disappointment, and bought me a new weeping cherry tree. It had already finished blooming by the time we acquired it and we have been waiting expectantly, all year.

Unfortunately, this past March, when it was very windy....

In case you can't tell, that IS a giant tree that's fallen on the cherry tree - snapping all of it's branches in one way or another.

Maybe, maybe...... it will be alright, somehow.

Some seasons are just tough - like mucking through molasses - but they do pass.

There's always renewal!

Right now, my world is a literal Molasses Swamp. Yup! It's mud season in Vermont!

Mud or no, my evening walks have been so refreshing and beautiful for me.

Mud Season flip-flops!

Many of you, of course, know the lines from Pride and Prejudice of the snobby Caroline Bingley and her sister:

"Yes, and her petticoat; I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud, I am absolutely certain; and the gown which had been let down to hide it not doing its office."

"To walk three miles, or four miles, or five miles, or whatever it is, above her ankles in dirt, and alone, quite alone! What could she mean by it? It seems to me to show an abominable sort of conceited independence, a most country-town indifference to decorum."

All that I can say in our defence is, what is a country girl to do?

I mean....

and this road really isn't very bad, at all. The ruts can run much, much more deeply!

Well!

I have very much wanted to share every little sign of spring that I see, when I go out on my walk, with you, this week. It changes so dramatically, every day, though, that I can hardly keep up.

For example, last week, on my evening walk, the sap buckets were out. Scarf, mittens and jacket were required. The wind was very chilly and, sometimes, the temperature was just above freezing and, sometimes, even, below it. Now, I only need a sweater.

Also, I had ONE bulb up. Where the other 799 were, I didn't know. I waited for ten more days - biting my nails - worried that I had planted the others upside down.

Reticent Spring!

Now, every day, brings more.


The ONE....

The water has been running all along, though! What a sound and it was/is everywhere! As I walk, I hear it on my left and on my right, distant, gaining, fading, up ahead, growing and amplifying again, then, receding but there is always another rivulet coming - whooshing, rushing, slopping, tinkling, trickling, slithering, ploinking and, yes, roaring!

Then, a week ago, the birds started singing tentatively in the evening. Then, whole flocks started arriving. Now, they're happily settled in and singing away.

....and the world is a blank, rich, gray and brown, humusy canvas waiting for growth.

Will you come for just a short bit on my walk with me? It is a dusky evening and the rain is coming - I can feel it!

(Do you see the beaver lodge?)

around the corner and towards home again.

Pale, faded, early Spring!

It is very dull and neutral but, still, beautiful. It feels full of expectation!

In fact, yesterday, the mild rain came and, with it, the most beautiful sound that water can make and it brought...

green, swelling buds!

On top of all this, when returning home, there's always the possibility of comforting chocolate.... after all of that, would you care to have a mug with me?