Snowdrops are shaking their little bells...

  
    Snowdrops are so pretty and I get excited at the sight of this little flower!
Crocuses are coming all out in their pretty blues and purples and yellows...and soon the daffodills will be blooming too!
Last weekend I did some early spring cleaning, and I made the rooms brighter and clutter free...well, almost...but instead of feeling relaxed I am more restless than ever...and I know now that this is when Spring really starts; it's almost inevitable, it's a buzzy feeling I get, a new energy springing up from underneath, whooshing upwards! The urge was great and I had to start throwing things, getting rid of the old to make room for the new...soon I will put my new bamboo blinds up! To finish the look I have new curtains of delicate white cotton with an embroided hem, reminding me of simple Italian curtains.
I'm singing all the time and I love to see more light coming through the window! Out there walking through the park or on the way to school with my daughter we like singing and listening to the birds singing with us. I'd like to share some stories, verses and songs with you.
My nature table now has earth colour and various shades of greens and purple and a snowdrop child...baby seeds sleeping...a plant with green shoots...   I am ready for Spring!
  
Spring Short Stories
The Snow Drop
By Hans Christian Andersen (Adapted)
The snow lay deep, for it was winter time. The winter winds blew cold, but there was one house where all was snug and warm. And in the house lay a little flower - in its bulb it lay, under the earth and the snow.
One day the rain fell and it trickled through the ice and snow down into the ground. And presently a sunbeam, pointed and slender, pierced down through the earth, and tapped on the bulb.                             "Come in," said the flower.                                                                          "I can't do that," said the sunbeam - "I'm not strong enough to lift the latch. I shall be stronger when springtime comes."                                   "When will it be spring?" asked the flower of every little sunbeam that rapped on its door. But for a long time it was winter. The ground was still covered with snow, and every night there was ice in the water. The flower grew quite tired of waiting.                                                                   "How long it is!" it said. "I feel quite cramped. I must stretch myself and rise up a little. I must lift the latch, and look out, and say 'good morning' to the spring."                                                                             So the flower pushed and pushed. The walls were softened by the rain and warmed by the little sunbeams, so the flower shot up from under the snow, with a pale green bud on its stalk and some long narrow leaves on either side. It was biting cold.                                                                "You are a little too early," said the wind and the weather - but every sunbeam sang, "Welcome," and the flower raised its head from the snow and unfolded itself - pure and white, and decked with green stripes.          It was weather to freeze it to pieces - such a delicate little flower, but it was stronger than anyone knew. It stood in its white dress in the white snow, bowing its head when the snowflakes fell, and raising it again to smile at the sunbeams, and every day it grew sweeter.                        "Oh!" shouted the children, as they ran into the garden, "see the snowdrop! There it stands so pretty, so beautiful - the first, the only one!"
 

"Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell,
       and the splendor of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger
       than dreams that fulfill us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops
       and branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossom like snow
       or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
That the sea was not lovelier than here was the land,
       nor the night than the day, nor the day than the night,
Nor the winter sublimer with storm than the spring:
       such mirth had the madness and might in thee made,
March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms
        that enkindle the season they smite."
   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Through all the frozen winter
My nose has grown most lonely
For lovely, lovely, coloured smells
That come in springtime only.
The purple smell of lilacs,
The yellow smell that blows
Across the air of meadows
Where bright forsythia grows.
The tall pink smell of peach trees,
The low white smell of clover,
And everywhere the great green smell
Of grass the whole world over."


Deep in the forest, lives the spring gnome
The smallest of gnomes
In the smallest of homes.
He has slept all winter, he’s slept quite a lot
In his cozy little home,
Where the snow is not.
One day as he snores
In his dreams hears a call
Of the sweetest little spring fairy
The sweetest of them all.
She calls for him to wake  “wake up” (singing voice)
The little sleepy gnome
From his wintertime slumber
In his cozy gnomy home.
His ear perks up
His snores do stop
He opens one eye, and wakes right up!
He peeks out the doorway
And what does he see?
A tiny little tip, of a flower to be…
He steps outside
To the warm soft breeze,
And this is when, he begins to sneeze!
“Achoo, achoo, achoo, achoo, achoo!”
He sneezes five times,
And when he stops   
Five little spring fairies, are all lined up    
All ready to begin, the spring work ahead,
Of bringing the flowers and bugs out of bed.
They have been sleeping all winter long,
the way to best wake them is to sing a spring song
The song that they then – sing, sang and sung
Reminds everyone – spring truly has sprung!
They dance ‘round the forest,
All day and all night.
Now in morning sun – COLORS SO BRIGHT!!
Flowers blooming, short and tall
Bugs buzzing and flying, some big and some small
We know the song that they do sing
Let’s sing with the fairies to welcome the spring…………

A Caterpillar crawled to the top of a tree.
‘I think I’ll take a nap’, said he.
So under a leaf he began to creep
To spin his cocoon and he fell asleep.
All winter long he slept in his bed,
Till  spring came along one day and said,
‘Wake up, wake up little sleepyhead,
Wake up, it’s time to get out of bed’.
So he opened his eyes that sunshiny day.
Oh! He was a butterfly and flew away!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the heart of a seed buried deep, so deep,
A dear little plant lay fast asleep........
“Wake!” said the Sun, “and creep into light”,
“Wake!” said the voice of the Rainbow bright.
The little plant heard and arose to see
What the wonderful outside World might be. 

  Daffadowndilly
She wore her yellow sun bonnet
She wore her greenest gown,
She turned to the north wind and curtsied up and down
She turned to the south wind and shook her gentle head
Then she whispered to her neighbours
“Winter’s gone to bed!”
   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tu – wee, tu- wee,
A little bird sits in the Hawthorn Tree
I sing and sing for my bright eyed wife
Who shares my blossomy and thorny life.
We’ll build a nest with eggs in it – one, two, three.
And mother will sit and keep them warm
And I’ll go and find a big fat worm,
So happy we will be,
Tu-wee, tu-wee
A little bird sits in the Hawthorn Tree.