A little bit of spring

As a write this, it's 2.5 degrees C outside and snowing.  For those of you who work on the other scale, that's 36.5 F.  In everyone's language, that's bloody cold for the middle of spring!

I'm getting rather antsy about the weather and really need the 'real' spring to start.  As much as I hated the 40C plus weather of last year's summer in Antalya, lately I find myself constantly fantasizing about sweaty afternoons on the beach.

The other day, the tree on the footpath in front of our house was pruned.  In my desperate need for a bit of spring in my life, I snapped up an armful of branches, brought them inside, cut them into just the right sizes and stuck them in an old champagne bucket.  Within a couple of days, the buds on each branch started to bloom!  They may be extremely ugly flowers, but watching those buds open to reveal new growth inside, makes me feel so happy.