The coming of springtime

A cool glass of lemonade.

Bare feet on fresh-cut grass.

A deep breath of fresh, fragrant air.

I think even the trees are having a happy exhale: winter-worn tips now turning into buds into leaves and flowers.

Today is the first real sunny, perfect day of 2012. The weather is topping 62 degrees F (16 degrees C) and we are so very outside.

Ah... garden parties.

Nothing better than strolling around a park. Getting that jetwasher out to do the front walk. Dusting off that springtime outfit you've not seen for months. You know the one - the lonely pair of shorts and the tank top, all crinkled up at the back of the dresser drawer, sort of forgotten until now.

I might even go so far as to say it's a good day for flip-flop shopping.

(Does anyone else remember when they were in school, and when the weather started to turn warmer, everyone kind of woke up? And then, come May or June, you start counting down the days until summer break? And then - ah, three months of sweet freedom. Bathing suits and bare feet were in. And you discover it only takes children to turn back into the true savages they are. Days revolve around lawn sprinklers, kiddie pools and dinner bells at dusk. Before you know it, it's time to buy school supplies. And put shoes on again. How strange it is to be shod.)

True, the First Day of Spring (in drop capitals like that on my Gustav Klimt wall calendar) isn't until March 20th. And it's only the 11th today. But somehow, I think as the world turns on its axis, and nods slowly at the sun at this time of the year, I think the Spring equinox can forgive me a week and a half's early giddiness.

Time to get back outside! The sun calls to me in a way that doesn't have words. (I need vitamin D.)

Have a happy and Sunny Sunday, wherever you are.