nice to see you.

Hello blog! And hello Spring! It is ‘officially’ Spring now and – although, yes, I am still walking around in my winter coat most days – it does seem safe to say that Winter might be finished with (though I know uttering those words is a recipe for snow-in-April-type disaster. Please no).

I've transitioned from boots to shoes. My gloves and hat have been tucked back away into storage for next year (lol jk, I lost both of them mid-February) and there have been a few days recently where I’ve been outside and, tilting my head upwards, thought: oh! I feel heat on my face. Is that - [squinting up at the sky] - is that you, sun? I’ve been so happy to see: the light hanging around till later in the day (it’s stretching its fingers into seven – even eight o’clock sometimes), flowers pushing up through the ground and blossoms appearing on the trees, people eating lunch outside again (with jackets on, mind you. But at least they’re not shivering indoors), my own shadow stretching long ahead of me on golden-lit evenings. As I write, there are birds singing outside.

Yes, Spring. Hello. You are most welcome.

With April comes all things wedding related. My sister is getting married at the end of the month so we all need to collectively pray for lots of sunshine on the 22^nd of April, okay? (Though please, God: no bees. I might be wearing flowers in my hair). 

Anyway – this is just a post to say ‘hello, little blog. I’m still here.’ (Sorry for the lull.) 

(The pictures are just from here and there over the past few weeks. I've not been taking too many pictures recently. I need to get on that.)

golden.

Spring is here. It tiptoed into our lives a few weeks ago (bringing opportunities for eating lunch outside, light jackets, walks without-gloves, birdsong, general happy feelings). And then it snowed. And hailed. And rained. And sleeted. And the sky was grey for a long time. And I caught the cold. And moped around Glasgow wearing a blanket-scarf and hiding my cracked-skin-hands deep inside my pockets. But it's come back and it is quite beautifully golden. Spring is here. It's here. And it is most welcome. What are some of the signs of Spring you've been enjoying?

Picture of: me, on Easter Sunday, in our back garden, looking unintentionally bridal... and in need of a hairbrush.

♥

I will return to this little blog. There is much to write. My head is full of words. For now though, here's a song I've been enjoying: Make it Holy by the Staves (featuring Bon Iver).

spring in the city.

I went for a walk around the west end of Glasgow yesterday and had to keep stopping to take pictures (on my phone, would you believe. The iPhone does have a terrific camera). I wandered. I went to Charlie Rocks for breakfast. I read my book*. I wrote a little bit. I looked round the Oxfam bookshop, and bought some old postcards. Lovely.

(*I aspire to be the sort of person that can casually, comfortably read novels in coffee shops. At the moment, it takes me at least a quarter of an hour to stop being self-conscious. There are all sorts of questions that need to be answered... like how to hold the book. Do I rest it on the table? Put it on my lap? Hold it in front of me with one hand, and hold the tea cup in the other? Prop it up against the sugar bowl? I don't know. Small questions. Real worries. I'm eternally awkward.)

♥

I'm away to America on Monday with my sister (I'm so very excited! I have lots of notebooks to jot down interesting things. I'm especially excited about people-watching in the airport, watching a film on the plane, and chatting to the nice family we're going to visit). I'll post some other-side-of-the-ocean noticings once I get back.

I was once a tall tree

I noticed this toilet-door graffiti in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow*. There were the usual graffiti suspects scrawled over the door (e.g. ‘Yer maw!’ or ‘Lucy + Gregg 4eva!!’ [enclosed in a crudely shaped heart] and so on), but I liked how a few of these were quite poetic (and uplifting). I've never met anyone who has admitted to writing on toilet doors. I wonder what gives people the urge to do it:

('If you are reading this then be happy. 'Cause, hey! You are alive')

('One day you will be loved the way I am. You deserve it, trust me.')

('Choose life.')

('I was once a tall tree/I was once a child')

♥

*Incidentally, I was at the Mitchell Library during the Aye Write! Festival – a wonderful book festival which runs every year over a few weeks in the spring. Over the past few years I’ve heard lots of interesting writers including David Aaronovitch, Germaine Greer, Julian Baggini, Susie Orbach, and others. (I’ve yet to go and hear a poet or a novelist. This will be a must for next year...)

The evening these pictures were taken was quite exciting as, rather than going to listen to a reading, I was actually giving a reading along with two other students from my year at university. (I’d received an award for a piece of flash fiction as part of Strathclyde University’s writing completion: the Keith Wright Memorial Award, judged by Ewan Morrison.) An amazing – if slightly nerve-wracking – experience! My first ever public reading, and also the first ever time I've been given a spot of money for a piece of writing. 

the smell of spring.

Spring smells like

stringing laundry outside –

pants and pillows and pyjamas –

and like picnics and playing

badminton in the garden –

tea, more tea, and triangle sandwiches –

and like enjoying the sun

before the wasps come.

Spring smells like

yesterday.

(I just found this tiny list which I wrote out a few years ago. Quite liked the rhythm of it. I caught a whiff of a few of those aromas recently. And then the rain came.

This picture was taken last week, a week hereby named The Week of Essay Madness. I drink quite a lot of tea in a day. This picture was taken at about 11am.)