Losing sweaters weather, a bit of Blake and a Marvell

This blog is a welcome gift for Aaron Davindu Joseph Moraes - born 2nd April 2011

Spring has sprung in Alicante and suddenly the weather is beautiful. It's still a little chilly in the mornings, cool enough to wear a jacket or a jumper, but the extra layers don’t last long once the sun starts happily blazing. It’s real sweater losing weather for my children, because I bundle them up in their school jumpers in the morning, only for them to return from school in t shirts with (if I’m lucky) their sweaters in their hot little hands. If they’re unlucky, the sweaters will have been taken off and left somewhere and as they wear uniform (so EVERYONE ELSE IN SCHOOL WEARS THE SAME THING!!) the sweaters seem to be lost to the ether somewhere...this raises mummy’s wrath as their school uniform costs a fortune. I am calm enough though because the sun is smiling and soon enough they will be wearing their t shirts and shorts to school and looking very cool.

Spring is beautiful, everything is green, my basil seeds have sprouted in a most satisfactory fashion and my Jasmine climber on the balcony is also putting on a glorious fragrant show. Spring makes me feel incredibly young (even though I know I’m not) and full of energy and wonder at our glorious world.

In Spain the umbrellas are re-emerging in the roadside cafes after a winter of disuse and some of the trees that seemed to have been pruned to just within an inch of their leaves only a couple of months ago are sprouting green leaves anew. Flowers are blooming everywhere and the lighter clothes and brighter hues are appearing. The strawberries are in season and selling cheaply by the kilo and the playgrounds are being used by cheerful children while their parents sip coffees in nearby cafes. It only feels like last week when we switched the heating off at night and now it feels like we’ll never need it again. The season brings to mind Andrew Marvell’s poem “To his Coy Mistress”, in it, he is trying to persuade the “coy mistress” into having sex with him, basically saying that life’s too short for coyness (it was ok for Marvell, he didn’t have to worry about having a baby!!) I love the line:
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires
My “willing soul” may not be burning with “instant fires” but I certainly feel more energetic and have a great desire to work on my garden and get things done now before it gets too hot.
We’re not in England any more, where we lived in close proximity to a farm, so we haven’t seen the magic of new born lambs this year, but we are still relishing the new growth around us. Lots of colleagues at school have had babies and a former student of mine has just had a beautiful baby boy. How can we feel anything but elation and joy at all the new life around us! Even though we’re not at ‘Home’ in Wales or England, we can still appreciate Blake’s thundering inspirational words because it's the weather to forget the housework and the tv and the electronic games, because it's time to get out and enjoy ourselves with a passionate energy!:
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
In the real world, it may well be (with apologies to William Blake):
“Bring me my rake, my spade, my trowel,
Bring me my sunny Spring time day
Bring me my joy! O worries unravel!
Bring me life pleasures you may!”

It’s Spring, it’s beautiful. Whoever or Whatever you worship or praise, then it’s time to give thanks for all the abundant pleasures of the earth and be happy that Spring has sprung.