MARCH WINDS

The delightful images in this post come from a children's book called "Spring is Here", copyright 1948. I picked it up yesterday at a re-sale shop. It is in almost perfect shape and has dozens and dozens of illustrations of apple blossoms, pussy willows, robins, lambs and other spring-related things to get me through the rest of the winter.

March came in like a lamb yesterday, with temperatures in the 50s F. and southerly winds. Today is a bit more lionish, with the winds having picked up quite a bit of speed overnight. They are tossing the tree branches around as I write, and they would certainly blow the little girl's umbrella inside out!

I have never been happier to say goodbye to a month as I was when I put February behind me. It was the worst month I can ever recall as far as bad things happening to me. The unfortunate events began on February 1 with my car accident and ended with my car dying a few days ago, of a malady that had nothing to do with the accident.

They say it's an ill wind that blows no good, so I hope today's winds bring me some luck in March. But I will certainly watch out for the Ides of March.

At least it's not the first weekend of March 1966, when a now infamous North Dakota blizzard brought 50 inches of snow and 100 mile per hour winds to all but a small corner of the state. I happened to live in that northwest corner so don't remember it like my husband and thousands of other people do.

All of us in North Dakota are hoping for a scenario like the picture below. It is very, very dry here and we could use some moisture. However, we are all willing to wait until mid-April or later when the precipitation will more likely be rain than snow.



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My new book blog, "Julie's Bookshelf" is now open. You'll find the link at the top right side of this blog. There's only one entry so far. I thought if I opened it now, I will be motivated to read more books and add more posts.

I am also going to be opening my poetry and art blog, "Just Julie," in a few days. It, too, will have only a few entries in the beginning. As with the book blog, I'm hoping it will motivate me to create more artwork and write more poetry.