Spring and the renewal of life

This week I saw my first dandelion. I think that was about Wednesday or Thursday. Since then, I've seen more. And some yellowish-green leaves are starting to come out on trees. That makes me think of the Robert Frost lines, "Nature's first green is gold, / her hardest hue to hold." I learned those lines from a movie that was out when I was in college. I think it was called The Outsiders. The boys in it were supposed to be the poor, socially disadvantaged boys in a high school, and I think one of them dies tragically. One of them, perhaps the doomed one, quotes that poem. As I recall they were played by extraordinarily good-looking young actors.

It was based on one of those books teenagers are supposed to like, all about how miserable adolescence is, often with drug use and unwanted pregnancies thrown in. I hated those kinds of books. I liked romance novels, particularly the works of Georgette Heyer. When I read, I did not care to escape into some school setting even more miserable than my own. I preferred to go someplace more pleasant.

Anyway. What I meant to say is that spring is progressing; days are longer, more flowers are blooming, trees are budding, all that good stuff.

And today I bought a new outfit and two new pairs of shoes. These are the shoes. Tomorrow I'll wear the new outfit to church. It's black pants and a black top with a white inset, so I'll wear the black shoes with it.



I really like loafers, and that's what the brown shoes are. The black shoes are sort of Mary Jane-ish, but they have a little design cut into them.

That reminds me of a pair of shoes I had in high school. I guess some trends are coming around again. Both shoes are Hush Puppies, which reminds of that song, "I got my Hush Puppies on, I guess I never was made for glitter rock and roll."

And it's good to get new clothes in the spring. It's part of that renewal thing that's going on.