Paksworld

So in my mind (and partly on paper) I had even the new things more or less organized, I thought.    Certain things for Monday, certain things for Tuesday, then Wednesday, then a day to pack and prepare for the trip to College Station, with a wary eye on the weather (my preferred route avoids most major highways, but isn’t OK if there’s heavy rain…)   Monday ran almost (!) to schedule, except I worked on only one pieces of music and could not finish the blog post for UK-editor.   It looked stupid.  (Trust me: I can write stupid.)

Today…after a stormy night…dawned clear and beautiful.   We took Michael in to the bus, and I sat down at my desk to start today’s work–quite a lot, actually, but beginning with the blog post, which looked even more stupid this morning.  Started over.  Started over twice.   Looked out the window–clear, heavenly-blue sky, warming up–and you know where this is going.  Out the door with camera and binoculars, to walk out to the far corner where oldest Mexican plum might be blooming (it was) and look for odonates (none: no dragonflies, no damselflies.)   The other Mexican plums on the place had buds *almost* bursting but not quite (the one in the garden proper was in full bloom…the fragrance…incredible.

Then came the phone interview which I always think I’ve messed up, but maybe not.  Then some other things had come in, that I dealt with, and by now the third attempt blog post looked stupider, if possible.  What was I thinking?  Why couldn’t I just say what I meant?

Spring, of course.  The second week of March in central Texas–after a wet winter and in a wet spring–is a very rapid burst of life.  Birds migrating through, some of them now in spring plumage and singing their hearts out.   Coral honeysuckle, bush honeysuckle, wild plum, and (by 2 pm) redbuds popping buds.  Water trickling along the ground, or standing in pools that reflect the blue sky.   The smells, the sounds, the feel of the air…words are inadequate.   You just want to breathe in, and in, and in.

Tomorrow is thunderstorms again, probably.   But today–today was a day to be outside, looking up at the budding trees, the flowering plums, the promise in the rain-drenched grass of more flowers later.  More of our springtimes are dry than wet…these have to be celebrated.

And the blog post will unkink itself soon–I can feel it beginning to slither out of the knot it was in–maybe tomorrow morning before I leave for the city, or maybe between the noon appointment and choir practice.