here in Boston...

“I want 

To do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.” 

― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Mr. D didn't get home until a little after 11 pm last night.

I haven't quite gotten used to missing him all day long...

(and it actually makes me quite sad to think about getting used to it) - 

so this spring weather is just the thing I need to distract and lift my spirits. 

Also, I have a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in the oven and its not even 10 am

(one of the joys of working from home)!

Whenever life seems a little daunting, 

it helps so much to focus on those little daily things that make me smile -

like long afternoon walks under the blossoming trees lining brownstone streets 

and the smell of warm cookies filling the air. 

cherry blossoms and jane eyre

"I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one."  — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

 I cant believe its already cherry blossom season. 

The festival starts this weekend and runs through next and it is one 

of my very favorite things about living in the District.

We took these pictures last year --

looking back at all of them makes me so excited to go take pictures this year...

as a little family of three!

---

Has anyone seen the new Jane Eyre film in theaters right now?

Sometimes I daydream about going on a movie date in the middle of the week,

in the middle of the day with Mr. D ...

in my dream we go out for really good Mexican food after. Surprise, surprise.

thankful for clarity of what is truly important in life

"Ireland is a land of poets and legends, 

of dreamers and rebels. 

All of these have music woven through and around them. 

Tunes for dancing or for weeping,

for battle or for love."
— Nora Roberts, Tears of the Moon

 It has been an unusual week so far - 

and I think this is part of the reason why all night I felt like I was running, 

even though I was assuredly horizontal all night long. 

Yes, I'm sure I must have slept...

Mom and I took a quick reprieve from the hospital yesterday afternoon 

and the topic of thankfulness came up and how we are told to give thanks in everything.

So, when I awoke this morning feeling as though my mind had been lost in the darkness of the night,

I gave thanks for the sun shining through all the windows of our tree house and

the sleepless birds singing at the top of their lungs. 

---------------------

Thankful for the nurse who tells story after story laughing so joyfully you cant help but smile 

even if you dont quite understand what she is saying through her thick accent.

Thankful that last night my dad seemed much more like himself as he laughed heartily at Modern Family.

Thankful for my mom's patience and the constant love she and my dad have for one another.

Thankful for the arrival of Spring in the District and the Forsythia blooming on our street.

Thankful that today will have a high of 65 and tomorrow...77 degrees!

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Thankful for my husband and the two rings I wear on my finger as a sign of our commitment
I love him so much and am so proud of him. He works so hard and does so much for our little family.

[and as a side note, I adore my one-of-a-kind ring and the flawless clear diamond Mr. D picked out 
and carried around with him knowing he wanted to marry me. ME!]

"May the road rise to meet you;
May the wind always be at your back.
The sun shine warm upon your face;
The rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May the Great Spirit hold you in the hollow of its hand."
— Irish Blessing 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

this day

"Do you not see how necessary a world of pains 

and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?"
— John Keats, Letters of John Keats 

 Every morning around 5:30 - before the sun even rises -

I wake to a chorus of birds out our window.

This morning I laid there listening to all their different songs. 

Are they singing to each other?

Which brave bird is the first to start the ensemble in the cold dark stillness on 22nd street?

I cant help but think its directed far beyond the tall trees and sleeping houses outside the District -

up past the clouds - giving thanks just for the existence of the day itself.

No matter what the day before may have held,

no matter what pains or troubles may have been encountered,

they start fresh each morning rejoicing -

even before light has been shed on what lies ahead.

Faith.

----------

Dad's surgery went well yesterday...only one more surgery left!

rainy sundays and grilled cheese sandwiches

"A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, 

because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light."
— Leonardo da Vinci

 Bright sunshine after a full gray day of continuous rain

illuminates everything fresh, crisp and clean.

Yesterday was perfect, as far as days go,

minus a headache that just wouldn't go away - I would not have changed a thing:

Husband and I joined a gym...a fact which we immediately balanced out 

with grilled cheese and fries at Bob & Edith's Diner.  

We left the windows open in our tree house all day Saturday, 

and I believe I actually heard hundreds of birds officially welcome Spring.

It perpetually rained all day Sunday -
a Spring rain that filled our lungs with pure moist air and provided an idyllic day at home.
AND we spring-cleaned our house - mopped floors and all.

Speaking of our tree house, I could not be more happy or thankful for it.

I love our little home and neighborhood in Arlington....

now all we need is a dog! We are leaning toward a bulldog still...

but I am still constantly researching breeds and need to take a trip to the animal shelter.

As much as we loved last weekend in Mexico, 

it felt really good to just be home in the District with Mr. D. 

abundant sunshine

"Isn't it pretty to think so."
— Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises) 

 Just like most things in life, yesterday's gloom is followed by today's bright light -

Spring is making her comeback.

 And with this new day,

I am once again lured by the memory of sweet cherry blossom and

their delicate, but bountiful presence adorning the Potomac's bank.

This morning, the weather report called for "abundant sunshine,"

isnt it pretty to think so?

-------------------

Speaking of Spring, 

husband and I have a date with a certain butterfly tonight...

...can't wait!

image here.

red wagons and a bucket of sidewalk chalk

"Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, 

and the grass grows, by itself."
— Basho

 I made it home before the bells rang, so it must have been about 5:30 pm.

And the house across the street looked like the sun had set it on fire. 

I laid on my back across the bed just listening. 

Coat-less children screaming with joy- their feet pounding the sidewalks

and a mother's gentle reminder just before a foreseen skinned knee.

Birds singing the sun to sleep and welcoming the buds on the trees.

And if I breathed in deep enough I could smell sidewalk chalk

and the worn wood of the well-loved wagon...

its red paint beginning to peel.

I ran my fingers along its rough and familiar edges.

And just as I felt my body lifting weightless off the mattress

the bells began to play Amazing Grace.

So... this is Spring on 22nd street. 

[happy weekend, friends]

a turquoise, green and yellow afghan.

"The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back."

— C.S. Lewis (Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold)

The way he walked in to the room

his canter and the smile on his face that made my heart race.

The older woman in line behind me at the grocery store, 

the way her silver hair was piled lopsided on top of her head and 

the careless enthusiasm with which she picked up her food from her cart - 

the grin on her face revealing a delightful inward joy.

The smell of the onion I chopped for our vegetable chili last night - 

and the fact that it didnt make me cry. Peppers, tomatoes, corn, three varieties of beans, jalapenos,

celery and garlic swirling together in colorful unison in our new slow cooker.

The scent of Spring outside - if only for a moment - in the middle of winter.

The afghan on the back of our couch that my grandmother's hands carefully made

and imagining her picking out the colors to make it.

The first time I paused to look up - standing in the middle of New York City.

feels like going back home.

Alexandria.

 "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

-Theodore Roosevelt-

I have learned so much more about my surroundings by

riding my bike...and on Friday, I discovered even more

by walking home from work...

Red brick sidewalks. Black iron railings. 

Secret gardens behind brick walls. 

The sound of the leaves rustling from
the tall tunnels of trees covering the road. 

Robert E. Lee's childhood home. 

Where George Washington once went to church. 

Black shutters. And windows into someone else's world.

spring is in the air, but luckily not in my head

"I love spring anywhere, 
but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden" 
- Ruth Stout 

I would love to spend the day running around taking pictures

It thunder stormed here yesterday afternoon

and I love the moist spring air coating the leaves

and branches of trees around Old Town

this morning 

I would take the polaroid camera, the rebel XTi and 

a diana camera and be perfectly content.

Flowers are starting to bloom everywhere and so 

far (knock on wood) I have been allergy free!

Photography: photo one - Kate, photo two - from the trip to San Diego, photo three - Sara Norris

Good News: Its Friday, it feels like Spring and the Cherry Blossoms are right on schedule

 

I am so glad that it is finally the weekend. Also, it is my last day at the office before heading to San Diego on Monday! The weather here is beautiful and it is supposed to just keep getting better through the weekend. In other good news, the famed Cherry Blossom trees survived the Blizzard of 2010. 

The district takes its Cherry Blossoms very seriously. There is a whole festival in their honor and actually an official bloom watch Web site! They have pictures posted there of what the blooms should look like in a countdown to their peak bloom period. Kind of ridiculous and sort of like learning that your baby is only the size of an avocado at 16 weeks. 

Currently the blooms are at Stage One: 

All kidding aside, it really is absolutely beautiful when the trees are in bloom along the tidal basin. This year the  peak bloom date forecast is April 3-April 8. But they should start blooming around March 31.

March and its Lion's Mane

It has been so windy here lately...

but thankfully not snowy! 

Now that it is March I am really 

ready for Spring weather

I will be San Diego bound exactly a week from today

So hopefully SD will give me an early

taste of warmer weather