A few stray thoughts upon Spring's sudden appearing

Unbelievably, April is almost upon us. I find myself with mixed feelings at this time of the year. On the one hand just stepping out of my apartment most mornings is delightful; the air is warm the trees are blooming, bulbs are sprouting and I feel I could skip all the way to the bus stop. It is the time to wear dresses and skirts again and to begin eyeing sandals and flip-flops collecting dust at the back of the closet.  However, this is also the time of year that paper deadlines begin to loom and the lethargic winter attitude begins to catch up with you as the mound of work between you and summer vacation seems at times insurmountable.

How should this dilemma be handled? Denial and procrastination of course! Flowers only bloom once every spring, after all, and those papers will always be there waiting for you to write them ;-)

I'm currently working on mixing responsibility and recreation into a magical elixir that once perfected I will copyright and mass produce, making a fortune that will significantly diminish my own need to be responsible. To that end I've taken several opportunities to smell the spring flowering flora: Jake and I have visited Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring and the Cherry Blossom (pre) festival in DC. Additionally Heather and I spent a lovely afternoon at the US Botanic Gardens enjoying their impressive Orchid collection. Here's a smattering of pictures:

A beautiful day to be downtown enjoying the cherry blossoms!

At Brookside gardens the vibrancy of the early spring flowers was noteworthy.

This past weekend when the weather was not as cooperative, Jake and I made a trip to the air and space Smithsonian museum where I learned how Jet engines work and how planes land on air craft carriers among other mentally stimulating tidbits.

Eventually I will have to drag my eyes away from the windows and my mind out of the flower beds to finish off my second semester of grad school. I'm doing some work with a couple John Donne poems for my Linguistics and Literary Criticism classes. I'm having a more difficult time picking a project for my Restoration Drama class, but I'm making that a priority for this week.

I'd like to end this post with a book recommendation. The Year of the Hare, by Arto Paasilinna is a profound yet lighthearted novel about a journalist living a fast paced, 20th century life who hits a hare with his car, is overcome with concern for the hare, patches him up and takes off on a series of adventures across Finland while trying to figure out what is really important in life. I picked this book up over Christmas vacation upon a recommendation from Jennifer at Literary Life Bookstore in Grand Rapids, and found it to be extremely enjoyable. Although I read it in winter, I think it has a spring-like air and has come to mind several times since the weather turned. So if you're looking for a delightful read that is a bit off the beaten path, I highly recommend this book.