Hope Springs...

Hope Springs Eternal….

    One of my favorite lines:

    Hope springs eternal....

    It's from An Essay on Man: Epistle I by Alexander Pope and the full line is 

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:

Man never is, but always to be blest:

The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Not the easiest to understand but I love the first line….Hope springs eternal.
That I get. 

There's always hope. 

And there is hope for Spring to come. 

Out the front door: February 1

This past week in my tiny corner of Colorado we have been teased, taunted, and flirted with.

The highs have been in the 50s and even skirted 60º a day or two.

Lows have been at 32° or at least right around there. 

Let me tell you, 40° at 7:00am feels like summer. 

I open the door for Carlos and follow him out, barefoot. 

Today the laundry called, the floors begged to be swept, and dishes whined from the sink "wash us".

And I went outside, escaping the cacophony of chores to enjoy the promise of Spring. 

Snow is melting and creating tiny rivers bubbling down the road sides. The sound is delightful, so much so that I recorded it for you:

Sweet Carlos would have liked to play in that water.

Stupid barbed wire fence. 

And that is the wind that you hear above the bubbling.

(There is also an awful amount of mud outside my back door, but you've got to take the good with the bad. Reality bites some times.)

All that snow melting makes mud. 

My neighbor, familiar with the wildlife, agreed when I asked if the bears would stir from their winter sleep if this weather kept up. Not for good, but for a snack before tucking back in for the rest of the winter. 

Because there will be more winter. I'm not kidding myself. 

But today I went out and looked for Spring. 

Neighbor said the bears might come out to nibble on grass. 

And I thought "Poor babies. There's nothing but dead grass. Might as well stay tucked in their dens."

Then I found tiny shoots of green peeking out from the mud and ice.

Green peeking out from the dead brown.

Branch ends are budding. I wasn't sure at first. But then I realized it was only the branches at the top, the sides facing the sun, the parts of the tree that got the most heat and most light exposure. Those buds are for real. 

The promise of tiny leaves.

And Look!  Bulbs from the previous home owner have sent up a couple of leaves...when did that happen? This spot has been under snow for...for forever. 

I think these are irises.

I've never been here in the Spring to actually see them bloom.

But this year…this year I will see!

  

It's like Christmas for Carlos. Toys thrown and then not retrieved, the distraction of a deer or bunny taking over, were lost in the snow. Slowly they are reappearing. 

We've been looking for this ball.

I've found three balls that I thought were lost. 

Spring will come. 

It won't stay this time but it will visit for a few days, leave and return. 

Out the front door today.

I know. 

Because ...

Hope springs eternal in the human breast. 

(I wrote this on Tuesday afternoon. Now it's Wednesday afternoon and guess what? 
Yep, it's snowing. )