“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” *

by chuckofish

Now that I’ve finally adjusted to daylight savings, I’ve noticed that spring is stirring: the birds are singing and the air has a new, fresh quality. We’re nowhere near buds and little green shoots, but the signs are there: wind, rain, mud, floods, and tons of road grit. We’re in what is affectionately known around here as mud season:

Picture retrieved from Google Image

Nevertheless, the onset of spring quickens the blood. I begin planning household projects (how quickly the kitchen trauma recedes!) and if I don’t exactly long to get dirty in the garden, at least I imagine re-potting my indoor plants.

It’s a good time to fit in a little recreational reading. I recommend something light and refreshing. My DH gave me Ian Rankin’s newest, In a House of Lies, for Valentine’s Day.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I felt that the author’s depiction of his main character, John Rebus, was a little off. All the other regulars were exactly as they should be, but Rebus just didn’t feel like Rebus to me. I wonder if anyone else felt that way?

Now I’m reading Louise Penny’s newest that son #3 gave me for Christmas:

Again, I’m enjoying the book, but whereas Penny has her characters down pat, her style is driving me crazy. She seems to have shifted to that awful journalistic every-sentence-is-its-own-paragraph style. Ugh. Still her main character, Armand Gamache, is as wise as ever:  “Learn to make peace with whatever happens. You can’t erase the past. It’s trapped in there with you. But you can make peace with it. If you don’t,” he said, “you’ll be at perpetual war…and the enemy you’ll be fighting is yourself” (p. 81).

In other literary news, I just discovered that Amor Towles is doing a writer’s tour and will be in Syracuse, NY in late October! Huzzah! Son #1 and I are already planning our evening out. I can’t wait!

Today I’ll be involved with another type of book — the church record books. Yes, it’s the annual reckoning and I’m off to have my books checked by other session clerks. Wish me luck. I spent all day yesterday getting them in order and it was no mean feat.

Have a great weekend!

*Rainer Maria Rilke