Spring!

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" ~Robin Williams

I thought I would share how spring looks around here these days [see Portishead in Bloom slide in left margin]! For some of you, I know that it won't arrive for quite some time! The girls and I took a walk through a few new neighborhoods [new to us and new to Portishead] to see how spring is getting along. We moved our clocks ahead this weekend for Daylight Savings time, so I am back to the previous time gap: -5 hours from Eastern, -6 hours from Mid-West, -7 from Mountain.

I met a fellow North American Expat yesterday for a pint. My letting [rental] agent shared our contact information. His name is Douglas and he is here from Montreal doing his post-doctorate work for three years. He goes back in two weeks to orally defend his dissertation. We both miss our friends the most, can't believe how long you have to wait for your Internet to be connected AND how much we depend on it. He has also been introduced to bell ringing practice [it really is unbelievable, especially now that it is getting warm and I have the windows open!]. It was nice to sit and visit for a while with someone from "home" ... close enough, anyway.

On Monday night of this last week I met some fellow Katie's [as in graduates of the College of St. Catherine's in St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN] who were in town visiting a seconded Katie working for Rolls Royce. Steph Klenk and Sara Aldrich were here visiting Jessie [sorry! I didn't get her last name!]. Two social engagements in less than six days! I need to spread these out a little more!

Last week, whilst I was driving in Dartmoor, I was listening to BBC Radio 2 and the DJ's were interviewing the wife of the late Thoedor Seuss Geisel [pronounced, guy'-sel], aka Dr. Seuss! The movie, "Horton Hears a Who" [Pub. 1954] has recently opened in the UK, so Dr. Seuss is all the buzz. Horton was featured in two of Dr. Seuss's books, the aforementioned, and also "Horton Hatches The Egg" [Pub. 1940]. [It's amazing what you can find on the Internet!]. Being a huge, life-long fan [I have a LOT of the books, dating back to my kid-years, but also quite a lot from my adult years], I was very excited to find the flower pictured left at my local garden center. Looks just like the clover that the Who's live on, don't you think?

That's about it for me. I planted a few more flowers in pots. I'm going to ask my landlady if she cares that I tend to the garden in the back. It is due for some re-claiming from the weeds! I'll have to have my neighbor come over and tell me what's a weed and what worth saving!

BFN [by for now]!