Spring's coming to Bern, Take 2

Hello again

Those of you who know me know that I have one goddaughter, three nephews and one niece -- I'm not being rude, just sticking to the chronology of their dates of birth. My goddaughter celebrated her 30th birthday just ten days ago and had a fantastic party last Saturday. The location was a very rural idyll that goes back to the 17th, 18th centuries. It is now on the very outskirts of Bern, with high-rise buildings on one side and the motorway underfoot -- public will made it possible for the noisy motorway to be covered over so that this gem of a complex could survive.
Here's a tiny bit of an impression of the kind of evening we enjoyed. It was chilly but sunny and stayed miraculously dry -- so I had a wonderful bicycle ride there and back again. I especially enjoyed my ride home under a star-studded sky.
Today is spectacular, too, and this is the view from my office -- no, not growing nostalgic already, but it's nice to have a nice view after a fairly long period of very grey, low-hanging skies.
Even the magnolia on the other side of the building is making an effort -- seems to be a great deal more resilient than it looks -- the nearly open blooms have coped with hail, rain, sleet, snow, very cold nights and sudden bursts of heat, and they're doing quite well:
More some other time -- still incredibly busy but step by step approaching the day when all my belongings are packed in my suitcase, in a removal van, in a van bound for the second-hand shop, or smashed to bits in the crusher. I'm surprised at how liberating this feels, and how much energy I have to deal with it all. Must be the right thing to do then... :)

I look forward to your comments. Cheerioh!

The difference of a bit of sun

Hello again,
Well, it's the end of the week and I'm almost done. Shipped off a couple of translations about one of my favourite artists, the sorely-missed Rémy Zaugg (see earlier post).
Before I pack up and clear out of my office, here's one more magnolia picture -- there was a hint of sun today, not for long, but still...
Peace!
Oh, had a huge great laugh about and with Mark Thomas, a comedian on BBC radio -- here's the link to the site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/markthomas.shtml
-- probably the best political comedy I've ever heard. Well worth checking out!

Resilience

Hellooo again!

There are days when everything feels wrong, goes wrong. Luckily, so far, they've been less numerous than good days in my case. Sometimes it's also a matter of looking in the right places.

Today was pretty blah, not to say yech, until I looked out the kitchen window at my office and saw a sea of pink:

A fine example of unexpected resilience: the buds and blossoms on this magnolia tree have come through a fairly extended period of frost, followed by unwonted warmth, followed by snow, sun, the north wind and rain. Today's a very mixed bag, Aprilly I'd say if I spoke two days hence.

Here's wishing everyone who reads this (and everyone else) good health, peace and happiness.

First Day of Spring, 2007

Hello again

The past few days have been a bit mad, at least weather-wise. I'm super busy but couldn't not take a few photos to share some of this madness with you people out there. Have fun!

This is what I woke to yesterday morning:
And these are what I came across on my way to work, also yesterday morning:
It's hard to see but there's actually a little cap of snow on almost each one of these magnolia blossoms!

Remember that wild plum shrub I spoke about recently? Well, here it is again, laden with snow:
No, not daffies but some kind of lovely, rose-shaped yellow flower on a green shrub.
Last year's rosehips still looking good -- that yellow-flowering shrub provides a bit of background.

A friend of mine -- don't know what's become of her because I haven't heard for ages and ages -- is/was a country singer. One of her lovely songs was "Roses in the Snow". These are my take on the subject. I simply love the delicate greeny-yellowy-pink colour of fresh rose leaves:
Later in the day, temperatures rose and the snow melted. But this morning, this is the view I had breakfast to:
It got worse before it got better:
This is a lovely note on which to end the first real spring entry in my blog -- the magnolia outside our office looking pretty good in a burst of sunshine about an hour ago. I won't tell you that, as I type, the weather has turned nasty again and a harsh wind is driving thin snow in, obscuring the view from my desk. It's just gone 4:30PM and I have to turn on the lights as though this were still January. :)