it was a be-a-u-ti-ful day today
amazingly so
we can’t quite believe the unseasonably warm,
lack of bone chilling wind,
sunshine not rain,
daffodil bloom filled days
it is only mid March
and it feels like May
amazing, remarkable, wonderful
and I’m sure not complaining
I spent the afternoon outdoors
visiting with a friend
she is also my husband’s sister
bonus
the dogs were there too
hers and mine
they ran free
no leashes needed at the farm
we lay in the grass
sat up some too
walked when needed
sometimes in sun
sometimes in shade
always under the blue sky above
with white puffy clouds
the happy kind
and air warm enough
we were just in shirt sleeves
everyone is going to sleep well tonight
yes, it was a be-a-u-ti-ful day
written on March 17, 2012
Turquoise Tangles' Tumblr link:
http://turquoisetangle.tumblr.com/post/19484927583/it-was-a-be-a-u-ti-ful-day-today-amazingly-so-we
© 2012 Janean Baird, Turquoise Tangles
Turquoise Tangles 
"they ran freeno leashes needed at the farmwe lay in the grasssat up some toowalked when neededsometimes in sunsometimes in shade"that's all I will say. I quote you.
Welcome back, kid!Of course, the following May was our undoing this year … cold, cold, cold! I thought we were having "Indian Winter". The orchardists must hope for a better year next year, I'm afraid … and then no rain for (literally) months, so the farmers are in the same boat as the orchardists.Hope springs eternal, and it's a damned good thing it does, else we'd all die.But yes, it was a lovely, warm March.
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
Thanks for the warm welcome, dW! I've been writing, writing, writing at Tumblr since last November because it's so easy to post in the moment from my phone. Yes. I've become one of those always plugged in people, but sometimes I do turn it off and walk away because the beeps, pings, bells and whistles, drive me a bit crazy. My hope is to share more of my Tumblr writing here at Opera too. Two blogs. What was I thinking?!
Lots of heat and drought here in central Illinois this summer. The corn isn't looking too good as a result. Farmers are thankful for crop insurance and hoping the weather will be better next year for a bountiful harvest.
Hope is a beautiful thing. A gift. As far as the weather, I/we will just keep takin' it as it comes. ~ Janean
Originally posted by studio41:
Jill,
Thank you for quoting your favorite excerpt from, "at the farm" back to me. It was a glorious day. Daffodils in boom make my heart sing. This poem, first posted at Tumblr, is like a bookmark of the highlights from the day. March feels so long ago now. Six months ago already.
My youngest son is already talking about snowfall, and hoping it'll snow soon…maybe even for Halloween. Our little oak tree, planted in the backyard nine years ago when he was just a few months old, has a bumper crop of acorns this year. I heard that meant winter will be a doozy. Time will tell.
~ Janean
Originally posted by jbaird:
uh oh! I cannot even fathom the summer is over and done. but, it is, alas. I am ready for winter and await another summer in due time.blessings, Janean!
Originally posted by studio41:
Jill, Please know that I am not rushing winter. I am savoring the brisk fall days and the beauty of the changing leaves. As much as I admire the trees in their bare naked form, they can take their time losing their glorious foliage. I want fall to last awhile. I love fall. I do! ~ Janean
I love Kenneth Grahame's description of Winter in The Wind in the Willows.
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
I had The Wind in the Willows on my bookshelf growing up. I even picked it up a time or two, and held it in my hands.I never made it very far though. Most likely it's packed in the boxes my parents brought me. Boxes from the attic packed with the contents of my childhood room. Packed sometime after college.When they moved from the house I grew up in, to their dream home, the one they built. I tried to search via google winter excerpts from The Wind in the Willows but had no luck. Wanted you to know, dW, that I'd read your comment above and tried to find the beautiful words describing winter, written by Kennrth Grahame, that have stayed with you through the years. Sometimes technology just can't compare with an old fashioned search through the pages of as well loved book…or a book that's been waiting over 20 years to be read all the way through for the very first time. Boxes schmoxes. I've let 'em sit in the garage in a neat stack. Perhaps they've sat there long enough…I'll let you know when I put my hands on that well traveled copy of The Wind in the Willows.Just don't hold your breath while you wait.~ Janean
"It was a cold still afternoon with a hard steely sky overhead, when he slipped out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay bare and entirely leafless around him, and he thought that he had never seen so far and so intimately into the insides of things as on that winter day when Nature was deep in her annual slumber and seemed to have kicked the clothes off. Copses, dells, quarries and all hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically, and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty for a while, till they could riot in rich masquerade as before, and trick and entice him with the old deceptions. It was pitiful in a way, and yet cheering- even exhilarating. He was glad that he liked the country undecorated, hard, and stripped of its finery. He had got down to the bare bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple. He did not want the warm clover and the play of seeding grasses; the screens of quickset, the billowy drapery of beech and elm seemed best away; and with great cheerfulness of spirit he pushed on towards the Wild Wood, which lay before him low and threatening, like a black reef in some still, southern sea."
"One can argue over the merits of most books… one does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and if she does not like it, he asks her to return his letters. The old man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. … When you sit down to [read] it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose you are sitting in judgment on my taste, or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgment on yourself. You may be worthy; I don't know. But it is you who are on trial."—A.A.Milne
Originally posted by jbaird:
🙂 may it last a good loooong while, then!
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
dW,Thank you. First for sharing the beautiful passage about winter from The Wind in the Willows, and secondly, for this magnificent quote from A.A. Milne. I will deal with/dig up/sort through those stacked boxes to find my copy soon. I will. Sounds like a book I need to make time for sooner, rather than later. Jill, Fall has been lovely. I'm in love with the gold of fields ready to harvest against the bright blue of the sky and vivid green of the grass after recent rainfall. The red maples are the first to change color and the first to drop their leaves. Now I can see the graceful branches and see a little further along the horizon where leaves once blocked my gaze. The temp has dropped. The furnace is on and running. I've been wearing my winter coat on early morning and late night walks with the dog. The squirrels have already picked our little oak tree clean of acorns. I have a feeling we're going to be walloped with winter this year. It can't snow soon enough for my youngest son. Snow. He's been speaking of it since school began…on August 20th. ~ Janean
I finally got the photograph to post with this poem. The delay was due to a technical glitch between My Opera software and my getting on in years mac laptop runnin' Safari. Of course, when I used Internet Explorer via The Bat Computer, located in the basement of my house, adding the photograph was as easy as it used to me from my shiny silver laptop. *sigh* I just need these things to work damn it. The first time. At least I know The Work Around for next time. ~ Janean
Originally posted by jbaird:
:)…and what will your son do when it does snow?
Originally posted by studio41:
Oh, Jill, that's an easy one! He'll grumble, because it won't be enough snow to suit him, UNLESS…1. it's at least up to at least his knees2. school is canceled3. it's a nice, wet, packing snow 4. AND "warm" enough to play outside for hours without risk of wind chillOne morning this week I suggested he wear long sleeves, because the temperatures keeps right on dropping. He hopefully asked if it had snowed yet, to which I replied, "No."He growled in response. An actual, "Grrrrr." My son. 'Cause I'm a growler too. *sigh*~ Janean
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
What a good memory, dW!Yes, like my Grandpa, who also literally growls AND signs his emails, "Gr.", so I address mine to him as, "Dear Grrrr,"My oldest son doesn't growl. He's (T.J.B.) like his mama and Great Grandpa in other way. The youngest, he gets this particular trait from me. He's (A.T.B.) a stomper arounder and door slammer when mad as hell too. We might be the smaller two people in the house, but we can make a big racket when we're simmering about somethin'!~ Janean
Like Grandpa?
😀 the snow… here's to a ton of it!
Originally posted by studio41:
Jill,I thought of you, and this ongoing conversation on Saturday. We were leaving the soccer fields, after the games were called off, on account of lightening. Just my two boys and me. It was 56 degrees, pouring rain, and my youngest said, "I wish this was SNOW!"I turned it into a teachable moment…I am a Mom after all…by asking:"It's 56 degrees, how much colder does it have to be in order to snow?"My oldest son answered quickly, "14 degress."I said, "Um…not 14…"He caught his math error and said, "24."The rest of the ride home was talking about how many FEET of snow we'd have IF ONLY this RAIN was SNOW!Smiling at you this morning, Friend. Love,Janean
I think the average conversion figure they use is 1" rain = 8" snow. Of course, the sort of snow it happens to be determines the actual figure.
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
My boys were GOING BIG with their conversion…1" of rain = 1' of snow!!!!They are dreamin' of snow forts, snowball fights, sleddin' and SNOW DAYS!!!!!Childhood. *happy sigh*~ Janean