STIRRINGS OF SPRING

“Poor, dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprise!” - Wallace Stevens

A beautiful fine and warm day today. We took the opportunity to walk by the banks of the Merri Creek. The trees were mainly bare and thrust their naked branches almost defiantly up into the blue of the sky and their fine twigs were like exclamation marks, punctuating their resistance to the wake up call of the strengthening sun. The creek flowed swiftly, its waters grey and one could imagine its coldness despite the sunshine, as the gusts of wind carried some bite.

And yet, the first stirrings of Spring were in the air and the buds were swelling. Some of the first blossoms were out. Flowering gorse bushes with their chrome yellow flowers, the wild onions with exploding sprays of pure white bells, the oxalis with lemony yellow blooms expressing the acidity of the plant’s sap. The humble speedwell with its delicate light blue flower echoing the wintry blue sky, the majestic wattle – all green and golden, and the rich purple and lilac of the wild pea looking like bright paint drops on the verdant green of awakening vegetation. Here a clump of fragrant violets, a happy garden escapee, there a deep blue Salvation Jane (or Patterson’s Curse, if you must!).

We needed the walk after visiting our friend in the nursing home again. She was feeling poorly today and was grateful for our visit, even though her weakening mind was filled with confusion and fuzziness.

For Song Saturday, a song by Edvard Grieg, “Våren” which is about a dying man and his view on his last spring. It is sung by Sissel, a fine Norwegian soprano. This is an rare perfomance from 2001. In the period between 1877 - 1880, Grieg produced a set of songs as his Op. 33 on texts by a man some called the peasant-poet of Norway, Aasmund Vinje (1818 - 1870).