Here Comes the Sun...

I never understood why people talk about the weather, and the plants that bloom with such passion until I moved to where the seasons change so markedly and the end of winter is truly the cause of celebration. We are certainly celebrating the return of the sun, and days that feel like they are 'normal' length after our short and dark winter days. Equinox is just a day away, and we are singing 'sun sun sun here it comes!' After Saturday there is officially supposed to be more than 12 hours of light a day.

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter.

And now the smiles are returning to the faces!

This new moon, mother earth wakes up from her winter nap, and the world celebrates it with resurrection festivals and Easter by the full moon. We welcome Spring time, new beginnings, the sunrise, the direction of EAST, the time of Easter, the element of air, baby chicks, and of life energy bursting through the cracks and new things taking hold.

We are all new beginnings over here. It is wonderful to have had a baby in sync with the change of seasons, to have hibernated all huge tired and pregnant in the dark swedish winter, and to have a new baby when the springtime is coming and the sunshine starts filtering back in.

Ten Days Old

Sweet Smudgey Baby Kisses

The day I was in labor was the first day we saw flowers in our yard- the little white snow drops that are the first to show up. Now they are opening. And SwedeGirl transplanted a few yellow flowers from school that are known as winter evaders, or tricksters, or something like that. Little yellow flowers that are known to be amongst the first to emerge. And this lovely purple blossom

showed up in the yard today And we have crocuses popping up in our mossy yard. And other wild yellow buds are poking through.

Today was sunny and pretty warm and there is no question the return of spring is near.

Ah, sunlight!!!

We (ok, SwedeDaddy) cleared out the recycling that had been piling up today, and it felt like some purgative spring cleaning. I followed around with the baby in the sling in the sunshine looking at the yard. It's our first year in the house so we are not sure what will come back and what is dead and gone as far as the plants go. We are excited to see our bare branches come back alive soon! In the summer, you could not see our house from the road. So here is shot from today, still looking bare. But with the spring signs showing, there is promise for more green to come!

I am still in recovery from having a baby mode, but the infectious energy of spring is brewing in me. I am thinking of what life will bring this year, of projects I am looking forward to doing, and of the new type of life this sunny new season marks the begining of. I am not doing, just thinking. Just imagining the flowers and berries to come, and wondering what life in Sweden with two little girls will be like come summer.