"Spring is Sprung"

Ma Bunny said "and now we should get out of bed." For many years I had it in my head that this was a quotation from some other source.  It would appear, however, that it is a figment of my own imagination. That's unusual because imagination is definitely not my strong point.  

Of course there is another poem that my brother and I learned as wee children:

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris, 

I wonder where the boidies is
The boid is on the wing,
But that’s absoid
The wing is on the boid!

Oddly enough when I did a brief Google search I got many and varied results including the easily verifiable statement that it was by Winnie the Pooh although I certainly don't recall it and, as I'm not at home, I can't verify that. One of you, my readers, will know though.

 

I've been in Glasgow - Bishopbriggs to be precise -  for most of the week and today it's been 20ºC.  Perfect for Anna to get into the garden and for me to be helping with a bit of labouring. However as it's Easter Day it's been a family day for Anna and we've enjoyed company instead. Now it's evening and quiet but it's still warm and the sun is thinking of dipping below the horizon.

It does make me feel that it's time to celebrate what feels like the first day of Spring.

If the bee had been less active or I had been more adept I might have got a decent photo of my first bee of the year. 

The camillias in Anna's garden are flowering

in fact some are in full bloom

On the washing there was a Seven Spot Ladybird. I had no idea they could be out so early.

Getting ready for flight

Sometimes

I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits....

This is not the first time I've used that quote which I had always attributed in my mind to Winnie The Pooh.  For some reason I decided today to check where it came from.  Interestingly it seems that Winnie The Pooh never uttered those words.  They are attributed by some to A A Milne though.  The quote also appears in Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of the Island published in 1915 about 10 years before Winnie The Pooh.  However it's origin may have been in Punch on 24 October 1906: 

Vicar's wife: Now that you can't get about and are not able to read, how do you manage to occupy the time?

Rustic man: Well, mum, sometimes I sits and thinks and then again I just sits.

Rain Rain

There is an old nursery rhyme (come to think of it are there any new nursery rhymes?) which goes:

Rain rain go away,

Come again another day.

Little Johnny wants to play;

Rain, rain, go to Spain,

Never show your face again!

My Mum used to say:

Rain rain go away

Come again on washing day.

I thought of that this morning because I have things to do outside and with the car and it's pouring - yet again. Then I thought how irrelevant both the above are in this day and age.  Little Johnny (in the UK at least) is far more likely to want to play on his computer or watch TV than go and play outside.  Washing day?  This is a concept swept away with modern washing machines, women going out to work, tumble driers and an ethos of wear-it-once which was a luxury few could afford or indeed think of in my childhood.  Now if something is worn for half a day into the wash it goes.  Let Mum (or Dad) deal with it.

Just a thought.

Such Cynicism in One So Young

I was asked yesterday how old a friend's daughter was.  As I wasn't absolutely sure I thought I'd just check her Facebook page.  What I also noticed whilst there was one of her interests cited as Bob Marley's statement that "Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for."  It made me think.  Now this young (20) lady was a ferociously intelligent child and is, I assume, still ferociously intelligent and I know that Facebook can be a pretty superficial medium of communication.  On the other hand I know of at least one lady who announced her engagement to most of her (small) family using that medium.  But I shall forget about Facebook and the young lady and concentrate of the quote.  If one accepts that the statement is true - and I certainly don't - then it follows that she herself hurts everyone with whom she has social connections.  It follows logically that if all people hurt you and you are a person then you must hurt all people.  It's a simple syllogism.  Please tell me that it's not true.

Silence

When I was a young man (I was, once, honest) I was driving back to Liverpool from the Lake District with a girlfriend (I think at 21 in those days we still called each other boy/girl friends) where we'd been for a short break.  At one point we'd been silent for quite a while and we realised that we knew each other well because we were comfortable with the silence between us.  We had no need to talk.  I was reminded of that today by Heather's quote on Facebook by Elbert Hubbard that  “He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.”  I used to have on my wall the words "We do not know each other yet.  We have not dared to be silent together."  However, unusually, I didn't attribute it to anyone.  I have Googled it without success.  Does anyone know if it's a quote or did it come from my head?

Dream It. Do It.

I have been wandering in and out of Jen's blog Jennifer Photography for some months now. It's an excellent blog but I am afraid of getting sucked into too many more blogs because I have only 18 hours a day available to me!! Yesterday Scriptor gave her a very well-deserved award for photographic excellence. That made me return to her blog primarily to make a comment but I wandered further.

I used to have reasonable tourist German from my many stays there but, although I could work out the words, I could not work out the meaning of the Goethe quote on Jen's blog. Today I decided to apply my mind to it. The translation programs didn't help me. The quote is: Was immer du tun kannst oder wovon du traeumst - fange es an. I have now worked out that it translates as: Whatever you can do or whatever you dream, begin it.

That's not usually my problem. I begin lots of things that I can do and lots of things that I dream of being able to do. My problem is finishing the projects once started.

Good Ideas Are Worth Copying

I have been scanning into digital format old photos and slides. Given that I've been taking them since I was a youngster that is a pretty major task. One I may never finish unless I am mega-ruthless and dedicated. It could be one for long winter days and evenings but, hey, when you live in a constant spring/summer/autumn environment that's a bit difficult. Not that I feel as though it's midsummer today. It's cold (ok without the wind-chill it's 12 degress and that's not really cold), wet (we've had 3mm of rain in the last two hours) and miserable and a perfect day for scanning whilst I 'spring' clean.

Anyway as I was looking at CJ's Blog this morning I noticed that his Picture For The Week was different from the last one that had registered in my brain. And I suddenly had an idea: have a Picture of the Week on my Blog. So now I have.

Next thing I'll be doing is having a quote too. Now, come to think of it....