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Saturday, February 28, 2009

Bringing Home Some Sunshine


The last few weeks of winter, at least here in the Northeast, can be absolutely brutal weather wise.

As I write this, we are preparing for another six to 12 inches of snow - while there is still a snow pack of several ice-laden inches on the ground.

Oh well, next week, on March 8, we all get to move our clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Savings Time and that extra hour of sunshine will be most welcome (not that it will melt the snow any faster while temperatures still hover around 38 degrees) but if you are suffering from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and need a serotonin fix, the clock change is just what the doctor ordered.

If you can’t wait that long, buy a bunch of daffodils! Word has it that early bunches have just arrived, at least in downtown Boston at Trader Joe’s for $1.49 a bunch!
http://www.traderjoes.com/Attachments/EC_loc.pdf

The daffodil’s gorgeous sunshine blooms and delicate but complex fragrance are a sure-fire harbinger of spring. I have always, since my childhood, thought of them as trumpets that announce the arrival of better days to come, and who couldn't use some better days in these tumultuous economic times?

William Wordsworth, England’s Romantic-era Poet Laureate (1843-1850) captured the essence of this “sunshine” bloom in his 1804 poem, simply titled,

“Daffodils (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud)”

I wander'd lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

5 comments:

BarryGillogly said...

Your thoughts are special... a moment to drink in... this winter has been difficult, but bless the new day's dawn... with daffodils.
Thank you!

Anonymous said...

I'm having a Dr. Zhivago moment... :)

Paula Slade said...

You are most welcome! :)

I also think of Dr. Zhivago and that glorious field of flowers!

Andrea said...

It seems we're all waiting for spring - winter is just too long! I'm going to Trader Joe's tomorrow, buying some daffodils, and count the hours until the I change the clocks!

Paula Slade said...

Andrea, you've got the right idea! :) Let's hope this weekend (with the 40 to 60 degree forcasted temperatures) we see some of the snow pack melt, our daffys open and dispositions brighten!