And again, she's going on about spring

There's an interesting saying in Russian that sums up the tensions in spring: Vesna krasna, no golodna. Spring is fair, but hungry.

While our ancestors in temperate climates reveled in the increasing light and warmth, spring meant you were scraping the bottom of the barrel--literally--in your food stores. Though a few wild plants might present themselves, basically there was nothing to eat. Hence Lent among the Christians or semi-Christians: for forty days, you went on a religiously supported diet regime, in hopes of making it through to the appearance of something edible. In northern Europe, people would hole up in their homes, wrap themselves up for warmth, and spend most of the last chilly, hungry days of winter sleeping to avoid starvation.

But we can enjoy the bright side of spring untainted. Our bellies are full. We're bursting with energy like the birds. Judging by your comments, we're all on the same page here. And I hope we can all claim this joy, regardless of the bitterness that seems to cling to us, unjustly. That's my little wish for all of you today. [Cue big-ass smile.]

Today, I'm going to try to finish reading for this book review I've had on my to-do list for an eon; put together our seed starting medium so that we can do some seed blocks this evening and get our planties going; do a bit of clean-up out in the yard and maybe dig and cook some of our parsnips that have waited out the winter underground. I'm eager to see how sweet the cold has made them.

The cats continue negotiations, some friendly, some tense. They are all characters, with strong personalities but very sweet dispositions. I will post pics very soon, I promise! Our camera is acting up a bit, so it's been tough to get anything that doesn't look like a strange blur where a cat should be.