4/30: in the air

Bats zigging and zagging.  The whippoorwill's trills.

4/29: -oppings

Honeysuckle popping open and filling the early evening air with its smell.

Rabbits hopping through and over the green green grass.

4/28: morning sky

...purple, magenta, and pink.  Not for long, but long enough for me to see and enjoy it.

4/27: paperwork

As we near the end of the academic year, I have a lot of receipts to file for reimbursement.  Today I managed to do the paperwork for some of them.  (Not a very inspiring good thing, but these receipts have been cluttering up my mind and desk over recent weeks and I'm glad to be making some progress with them, getting them off my desk and out of my mind.)

4/26: one more under the wire

Today was my day for ordering postcard prints of some photos I've taken this month.  Truth be told, it hasn't been a month of much picture-taking, and it was a bit of a bummer to realize how few photos I've taken in recent weeks--a sign of how busy I've been.  But then this afternoon I took this picture of an iris in our yard, adding one more picture to the modest set to be printed.

4/25: breakfast to go

The electricity had gone out in the night and was still out when we woke up, so we pulled on some clothes and got coffee and breakfast at a drive-through.

4/24: good call

I cancelled my classes.  I end up second-guessing and third-guessing myself when I do this:  should I have "toughed it out" and gone in?  Today it was the right decision not to go.  I was in no place to think clearly, and I needed to keep the warm fluids and warm air around me consistently to get better.

4/23: comforts

A double-whammy of a virus and an arthritis flare-up had me hurt and sad by the end of the work-day.  So I curled up in bed for the evening with some soup, pain-killers, the cats, Chris, and a movie.

4/22: bluebird beforehand

We found ourselves with a half an hour between the end of dinner and the start of a faculty meeting, so we went for a little walk.  Chris showed me a bluebird which, he says, often perches on the same tree.

4/21: pause for play

...with the cats and the laser pointer.

4/20: crimson clover

...always so welcome by the roadside!

4/19: this little porch

I'm sitting in our screened-in porch.  Tilde is curled in the cat-bed on my left.  A storm is coming on:  the trees are roiling outside, but--for now--we just hear the sounds and feel a slight breeze blowing through.  And I realize how metaphorical this area is.

4/18: a highball in high tops

I had to go to the inauguration of our college's new president, and I wore a pair of Converse high tops that match my regalia.  When I got home after the ceremony I mixed myself a drink of tonic water and elderflower liqueur.  It's a drink I enjoy having about once a year--plus I really wanted to say that I drank a highball while wearing high tops.

4/17: three

A long, late-afternoon conversation with a former student who graduated 10 years ago and has been spending the semester here as a faculty member.

Seeing a double rainbow with her as we left the coffee shop.

And then, hours later, seeing a bat flicker by my car on my way up the hill.  It seems good to have seen a bat on National Bat Appreciation Day.

4/16: caught drops

Raindrops caught on rose leaves.

4/15: floating on a filament

As I was walking across campus this afternoon I paused to watch an inchworm floating on an all-but-invisible filament.  It really looked like it was suspended mid-air.  Another professor stopped to watch with me.  I couldn't get a very good picture, but of course I had to try.

4/14: contrast

I had thought that 4/10-4/13 was going to be my toughest stretch of April, and maybe I was right.  Today was so much calmer than yesterday--still packed but less hectic feeling.

4/13: ready to be mailed

We delayed doing our taxes to almost the last minute, yet again.  But we worked on them after dinner, and the forms are now ready to be mailed tomorrow, one day before the deadline.  I really don't mind paying taxes per se; I just don't like all the associated bureaucracy, so I'm looking forward to "taxes" not being an item on my to-do list for another year.

4/12: dogwood day 2015

My annual visit to the dogwoods in the woods near our house.




4/11: latin poetry & latin american food

I spent my morning with some high-school students who were reciting Latin poetry at a state-wide language festival.  (I had been asked to be a judge.)  It was fun to spend some time with the students and their great teacher.  The teacher and I ate lunch together, and we had pupusas--hurray!

4/10: book group!

A great way to end the work week:  with a group of 20 people talking intently about a book, not for a class, just out of sheer interest and reading-loving community.

4/9: done

Some tough meetings are now (or at least for now) done.

4/8: a happy first of the season

We ate breakfast on the porch in the early morning, and I heard a whippoorwill for the first time this year!

4/7: pollen dust

My first spring in Arkansas I couldn't believe how much pollen filters down through the air every day.  A yellow dust covers everything, and when it rains the puddles have swirls of pollen on their surfaces.  My sinuses don't necessarily love all the pollen, but I'm amazed by it.

4/6: a smell, a sound

A smell:  the combined flowers of spring.  Just amazing.  Every year, just amazing.

A sound:  Tilde's purring.  Loud.  How lucky I am to hear it.

4/5: spring sightings

A hummingbird sipping at the yellow trumpet flowers, a rabbit hopping through the grass, and lots and lots of blossoms all over the ridge.

4/4: happy feet

I got back from my trip on Sunday night, but things had been so busy all week at school (pre-registration with the students for next year, plus a visiting speaker) that I hadn't had a chance to unpack until today.  And at the bottom of my suitcase were my reflexology/massage sandals.  Oh how good they make my feet feel.

4/3: seeing good things

The spring dance concert at school, and especially the last two pieces.

A big raccoon.

Moonlight on the lake.

4/2: flowering

...redbuds and dogwoods.

4/1: spring rain

I'm sitting on the porch in the first calm and quiet I've had in over a week.  As twilight and darkness come on, it's raining.  And the air and earth smell good.