It's what's on my mind on the first day of spring

"Daffodils that come before the swallow dares,
and takes the winds of March with beauty."
~ William Shakespeare

Today is the first day of spring.

"Spring has returned," the early 20th century Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote. "The Earth is like a child who knows poems."

And, spring conjures up pleasant memories of walking through St. James's Park in London this time of year in 2005 and 2007 enjoying the pleasant sight of daffodils.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, spring arrived on March 20 with neither a bang nor a whimper. As I look up from my MacBook Pro and glance out the dining room window of our house, I can see the sun is desperately trying to peek through the cloudy skies. Yet, there is the possibility of a sprinkle or two in today's forecast, too. Unsettled like everything else in the world these days, right?

We're expecting a daytime high of about 60 degrees (16C), which easily bests Seattle's 46 degrees (8C), and it's warmer than what we've experienced the past few days. However, our temperature and forecast pales in comparison to what my friends in Belgrade (67F, 19C) and Tunis (70F, 21C) experienced today in their first day of spring.

Spring is full of optimism ~ think baseball ~ and its annual arrival at this time of the year leaves chilly winter memories behind. Thankfully, spring has been widely rhapsodized in poetry for many centuries by Shakespeare and Wordsworth, among many poets.

Ultimately, whether sun or rain greets the arrival of spring, poetry does seem right for the occasion of celebrating the first day of the new season.

A Prayer in Spring

By Robert Frost (1915)

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

The which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends He will,

But which it only needs that we fulfil.

Photograph of daffodils in a vase by Michael Dickens, copyright 2012.

It's what's on my mind on a rainy day

The beauty of raindrops clinging to the petals of a Pristine rose
in our backyard garden.

A thought and a quote to share on a very rainy winter's day in March in the San Francisco Bay Area:

"Into each life, some rain must fall.
The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain."

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And ... stop to admire the beauty of the raindrops, too.

Photograph of Pristine rose by Michael Dickens, copyright 2011.

The pleasure of our gardens, part 20

Calla lily / Zantedeschia aethiopica

The calla lilies at our home are in bloom again. They are suitable for all occasions and I enjoy photographing them to share with my friends in both good times and sad times.

Much to my surprise, a snail had
taken residency next to the spadix
when I photographed this calla lily.

Thanks to recent winter rain showers, at last count there were about two dozen of these perennial calla lilies blooming on the shady east side of our home. It's a pretty sight to behold. And, with spring just around the corner, soon, there will be even more calla lilies in bloom to photograph and enjoy ~ and to share, too.

The calla lily is native to
southern and east Africa and
naturalized in Australia.

If our gardens are a form of autobiography, as the author and gardener Sydney Eddison once suggested, I am happy to say that after owning my home for 13 years, our calla lilies just keep getting more photogenic. They ask for so little and, yet, give us so much in return.

Indeed, as it has been said, a healthy garden is a reflection of a healthy soul.

Photographs of calla lilies by Michael Dickens, copyright 2010 (top photograph) and 2012 (middle and bottom photographs).