“Awake, thou wintry earth
Fling off thy sadness!

Fair vernal flowers,
laugh forth Your ancient gladness!” ~ Thomas Blackburn

“O Love-star of the unbeloved March,
When cold and shrill,

Forth flows beneath a low, dim-lighted arch
The wind that beats sharp crag and barren hill,

And keeps unfilmed the lately torpid rill!” ~ Sir Aubrey de Vere Quotes, Ode to the Daffodil

“Friendship is a shiny thing, a steady beam of light
A lantern on a lonely street, a song far in the night

A smile,  a touch of loving hand,
a quiet moment on a hill
And, oh, what a happy little child bringing home a daffodil.” ~ Unknown

“She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,

 And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”  ~ A.A. Milne

Like many this year, the street views outside my window have been winter barren in the most extreme sense of the word. The branches of my beautiful trees faced me everyday, some days covered with ice, some with snow, days filled with grey. And just when I thought they’d faced the worst, there came more. Storm after storm after storm.

My trees wear beauty in any season, any weather. But this winter, one of the worst ever, tested them. I’d peek out the window everyday and my stately trees stood staring, branches outstretched, as if to say, “When is enough? How long? This seems never-ending.” And me, warm inside, unable to soothe, joined their song of longing. It seemed to linger forever. They bore the stark beauty of winter proud. And we waited as one. Drawn in, still, preparing for the day of green. And then the day came.

Cold, frozen ground gave way to green, gave way to buds, gave way to these yellow lovelies pushing through, popping up out of the ground.

Yes, the days remained cold and windy and gray, but one day the sun shone bright. And I could no longer contain myself. Leaving a sink full of dishes, the rays irresistible, I ran out and joined all of them. I threw a blanket on that frigid ground and got under them, over them, and around them in a contortion of child’s play, smiling and laughing among a sea of yellow dancing. And hmmm … was that birdsong I hear? Ahhh … just a little more time, my friends, and we’ll be dancing with the sun on our back and spring in our step!

“Daffodils that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty … ” ~ William Shakespeare

This is but one view of  life on my street. On the last post I promised you daffodils. As you can see, I kept that promise! I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Happy Spring! Alexandria

{Photos taken with Nikon D60 with Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm lens, in RAW mode. If you want any metadata you’ll have to contact me. Thought if you clicked on the photos you it might be there, but not so. I recently took another photography class and this is the first roll-out of photos using full manual mode and applying some of the new techniques. As per usual, there is very minimal, if any, post-processing–nary a crop except the first one. Most are completely untouched. What do you think?}

Other street views I enjoyed:
My Cyber House Rules
Beyond the Brush
Thoughts and Entanglements
Blogagaini
Depth of Feelings
Life in the Foothills
Find Later Photography