Looking forward to Spring

      I enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles, finding them a great way to relax for a while. Sometimes I have sets of puzzles where the same basic scene is used but at different seasons of the year, creating quite different pictures. Even as a boy I was at one with the countryside and the way that the seasons affected everything around me in so many different ways. 
      My favourite seasons are Spring and Autumn, the former because it heralds new life and the latter because it has the most magnificent display of colours as the trees change from greens to red and gold. This is not to say that I don't enjoy the other seasons as well, but they don't offer me as much pleasure. I agree that snow in winter is beautiful to look at, but as you grow older it all carries less attraction than it did in the boyhood years.
      As a boy it was fun to go out in the snow, creating exciting scenarios with a vivid imagination hard at work. I could be Scott of the Antarctic, battling my way through blizzards in my attempt to reach the South Pole, or Sir Edmund Hillary climbing up Mt Everest against all opposition. Of course, the winter also brought snowball fights and sledging (no 'elf 'n safety wallahs to worry about then!).
      Once you get older, especially the age that I have now arrived at, the winter means cold, more cold and still more cold. You step outside your door to be met by icy blasts as the 'lazy' winter wind seems to go right through you. Once the snow has arrived it becomes perilous for real rather than in your imagination, as you battle your way along pavements that threaten your stability at every step. Thinning hair means your head gets cold, even with a hat on, and although you can stay indoors rather than going out into the weather, the cost of heating the home is another hazard. I think that it's safe to say that I'm not a fan of the winter months with the long dark days and the cold.
      Spring, however, is a different kettle of fish --- or should I say, 'field of lambs' --- for it heralds the arrival of new life all around us. Even when there is snow on the ground, and there usually is at some point in Spring, it feels different. That's because with the new life come renewed hope. New life means that things are better than they were, and so with the arrival of the first spring flowers our hope in the future is reborn. Snowdrops are already appearing in the gardens and folk are already searching for the first daffodil of the year. The birds seem to sing with more gusto than before as their thoughts turn towards nest-building and procreation.
      Yes, although I love the Autumn with its rich panoply of colours stretching across the horizon, but I love the promises that Spring holds for the future, and the joy that it offers in the present.