As she wrenched her music out of the guitar, therefore, she began to add other themes, other scales and tonalities. The Equinox had arrived, bringing with it the promise of Spring, and she turned to it and its message, embraced it, celebrated its mystery with music from an electric guitar and a Laney stack driven to peak. Shouting out the mystery of the new season, she cast it throughout the club, and its benison enfolded her listeners like broad wings of solace. — Gael Baudino’s Gossamer Axe
It’s spring in parts of the Estate’s extensive grounds. Not everywhere, of course. A certain acreage entered fall on the first of March. There’s even a grove on the far side of Oberon’s Wood where it’s always spring.
Now listen as a number of writers visiting our Estate say how they celebrate the arrival of Spring…
Emma Bull cleans up to note Spring: ‘I don’t know if it’s cultural baggage or a real effect of some spore of springtime yet unknown to science, but the changing season makes me want to clean house. Not so much scrubbing, vacuuming, raking, and pruning (though there’s some of that); I find myself taking physical and mental inventory, disposing of unneeded possessions and habits, clearing space in my inner life and outer landscape for new things to sprout.’
Ellen Datlow has a detailed answer why Spring is worth celebrating:
I love spring in New York–even if it only lasts a few short weeks. I celebrate spring by trying to view the very few magnolia trees in bloom around my neighborhood (they’re in full bloom for only a few days so it’s quite easy to miss them completely).
There are pear trees blossoming throughout the west village (NYC) where I live and I can go around the corner and look at a whole line of them. Other types of trees start budding. Gingko trees on my block– I love to see them as they begin from tiny, perfectly-shaped leaves until they’re mature by summertime.
Birds start congregating on my fire escape in order to tease my cats, who eagerly watch them through the living room window. My younger cat jumped at the window last week because she saw a sparrow. This is her first spring as an adult and I’m looking forward to her antics when the birds are more plentiful out there.
I move clothes between my two closets–my bedroom and my back room and sometimes even dispose of a few items I never wear.
And then it’s summer. Hot, muggy, smelly and everyone in bad temper. Ugh.
Deborah Grabien says ‘Mostly, I take a long deep happy breath, because yay! The druids were right! The sun’s back!’
Ellen Kushner says Spring with flowers: ‘As soon as daffodils appear in the little flower stands outside the bodegas on the streets of NYC, I always buy a bunch and take it home, inhaling deeply. They usually turn up about a month before actual bulbs start sprouting in the parks . . . so that’s how I know that spring is coming soon.’
Irish resident OR Melling likes to garden:
I’m back in the garden; not only my own, but my friend’s much bigger affair on the side of Bray Head, overlooking the Irish Sea.
Also back hiking the Wicklow Mountains with my hill-walking group. We were out all day Sunday in the sunshine, over Stony Top and on to Tonelagee. The latter mountain’s name translated from the Irish – tón le gaoithe – means “Arse to the Wind” and yes, it’s very windy up there!
Spring isn’t quite here according to Jennifer Stevenson: ‘It’s too cold in Chicago to take one’s clothes off and dance in the woods, so my first celebration of Spring is going to the Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, in Orlando, around Spring Break. This is an academic conference, but far from formal. A whole lot of science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers also attend, sometimes even editors & agents. Also artists, singers, theatre people, anyone with a connection to fantastical images, ideas, themes, or whatever in the arts. We’re located near good restaurants, but far from teens-gone-wild and Mousetown. After the conference, my spousal unit and I generally visit the Canaveral Wildlife Sanctuary, where we see eagles, ospreys, herons, storks, egrets, pelicans, spoonbills, flamingos, hawks, vultures, alligators, and many other very fine features of nature.’
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