Transition time

There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

- Emily Dickenson

Heading into March (only four more days of February left, after all...), I am heading into my least favorite time of the year and it is difficult for me to maintain my preferred rose-tinged glasses view of the world.
Today, driving home and viewing the worn out grey and shabby landscape though my car window, I felt as worn out and shabby as what I was seeing.
We have had some melting of snow, and yes, we can see the ground in places, but it is a dead and brown ground with not a green and growing thing in sight.
And there are dirty, almost blackened lumps of snow left, lining the roads.
The trees look beaten up, with huge branches snapped off from winter storms.
The pond I pass every day is still all frozen over and I miss seeing the pair of swans that usually are there(where do they go?).
The left-over Christmas lights and wreaths on some houses(including mine) that still delighted the eye and spirit in January, are looking sad and forlorn now.

I guess I never do well with "transition" months between the ending of seasons and the beginning of another-- late August I find depressing, as well.
I have also been in a personal funk lately--going through my usual "what have I done with my life" and not being able to be motivated to do much of anything. I think I am having hot flashes(always only at night, though), too. So I am entering a transition of my own.
I did pick up some seed packets today:

Johnny-Jump-Up's (Viola)
Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia)
Oregano
Basil
Parsley
Morning Glory
Lettuce
Carrots

and I think I'll at least start growing the Johnny-Jump-Up seeds on Tuesday(March 1st).

Last day

Listening to the near quiet of a cold "last-day-of-the-old year".

Just heard the faint sound of that whirring sound swans make as they fly over the roof,

can hear the buzz of the computer modem in here,

and also the chickadee's "dee-dee" song outside my window.

Feeling a little low today. Fight with the husband last night. Not feeling like celebrating tonight. Might start off the arrival of 2011 with some painting/drawing, which I really have not done much of since October, when I painted the wary ( and also weary?) eyed woman above.

Feeling.....

B ...blogged out
L ...lethargic
A ...apathetic
H ...hard... to get back into blogging after being away so long

I think I have been in a late summer funk these last few weeks. I haven't felt like communicating with both online or offline-world friends. I haven't been doing anything creative and barely constructive with my time. I am a boring blah person these days with not much to say.
I think late August into early September is just never my time. It's sort of like March is not a good time of year for me--energy-wise.
Like March, I am feeling done with the season and eager to be refreshed and into a new season. As if I need some crisp autumn air to re-energize me.
August(and now early Sept.) to me is humid, tropical air, replete with hurricane weather,
dried out vegetation,
a tired and dragged out look to the landscape.
I haven't been doing much of anything, other than work and flopping down onto my bed at night to read. I have read some very good books--all summer, in fact. So there's a good thing.
I think I have read more books in the last two months than I did all last winter.

The books I have read are as follows:

*The Tutor by Peter Abrahams
A sinister psychological thriller in a Stephen King vein, but with a kind of lame ending.

*The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
The perfect summer "thumpin' good read".
Sort of a A.S. Byatt-lite type book. I'll be looking to read more novels from Morton in the near future.

*I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
This was listed as a "Young Adult" book, but was recommended to me by a bookclub friend, after we read Zusak's excellent "The Book Thief" two years ago. All this time, she has been pleading with me to read this book and I finally got around to it last week. I am glad I did--it was funny, whimsical and moving at the same time.

*The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larrson
Even better, I think, than the first book in the series. Just could not put this one down--was even reading this with breakfast!

*A Year In The World by Frances Mayes
How did I not know what a wonderful writer Mayes was until this summer?! I picked this hardcover book up for a dollar while up in the White Mountains at a library book sale, and simply swooned over her evocative travel and food writing, especially the chapters about Portugal, Naples and Sicily. I'll have to read her books about Tuscany now, too.

*Little Face by Sophie Hannah
A promising psychological thriller that petered out towards the end.

*When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
Another good one from a favorite author of mine-a mystery with a difference, meaning literary depth and interesting, real main characters.

My next book from my pile(which I have whittled down from a tall tower to a small, manageable one)is "The Girl With No Shadow" by Joanne Harris--the sequel to "Chocolat".
I'll start that tonight. We are supposed to have some heavy wind and rain(from Hurricane Earl, churning up the coast, but staying further out to sea) which would make my ideal reading-in-bed scenario(I love reading in bed, while the rain and wind lashes the windowpanes).

Here's some video footage of the waves off the coast of my town from earlier today: