So here we are at another Friday–any big weekend plans–maybe with family given the holiday coming up on Sunday. The highlight of my weekend is doing my taxes on Sat. Talk about excitement–if I get some money back then I’ll be excited. (oh and all my pictures are from the Irish country side.)
The Drew Carey Show: Mimi Bobeck: “Ah, spring. When a young man’s fancy turns my stomach. “
“I played a heap of snow in a school play. I was under a sheet, and crawled out when spring came. I often say I’ll never reach the same artistic level again.”— Stellan Skarsgard
So today I’m just wrapping it up with all things Spring which gives you a pretty wide choice. For Instance: Old English springan “to leap, burst forth, fly up; spread, grow,” for the origin of the word…you know like plants spring or burst forth from the ground when the winter leaves and thus eventually it became what it did. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=spring
But there are other means to spring’s madness: an issue of water from the earth, taking the form, on the surface, of a small stream or standing as a pool or small lake. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/spring In this present day and age we often have little or no contact with springs—unless you live in Florida (for instance): “Geologists from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection claim that Florida may have the largest convergence of freshwater springs on the planet, with over 700..” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_springs_in_Florida
And we must not forget another Spring item which while not peculiar to the same state (Florida, in case you forgot) does have a certain reputation of being, if not the best, at least the most notorious here and which according to Time Magazine started here eons ago when “swimming coach at Colgate University, Sam Ingram, … brought his team down to Fort Lauderdale in 1936 to train at the Casino Pool — the first Olympic-size swimming pool in Florida. In 1938, sensing a marketing opportunity, the city hosted the first College Coaches’ Swim Forum at the Casino Pool; according to one source, by 1938 more than 300 swimmers were competing at the event, and a bacchanal was born.” And we’ve never enjoyed spring quite as much sense…. http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1888317,00.html
“The only thing that could spoil a day was people. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”–— Ernest Hemingway
Springwort was a magic plant associated (with ancient Greeks and Romans as well as Jews and Arabs) with fire and lightening and could discover secrets, finding treasure and opening locks. The French credited it with the power to give one superhuman strength, and some felt it gave woodpeckers the ability to pierce oak trees. The problem is that while all these abilities have been documented the plant itself can no longer be identified . In fact I’m not sure it was that obvious back in its hay day as one way of identifying it was if “the bird, stopped to rub its beak on a certain plant the plant he rubbed his beak in was, yeah you guessed it, Springwort—so go ask the nearest bird next time you what superhuman strength.
In Scotland the Highlanders had a ceremony which involved pounding the ground with a stick until a snake(s) appeared. “The snake’s behavior gave them a good idea of how much frost was left in the season.” http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/ostarathespringequinox/a/SnakeFolklore.htm….why snakes and frost are so closely related I failed to find out–I have a trip to the highlands planned for about 2 months from now, so I’ll be sure to be on the look out for people summoning snakes.
and while we’re looking at rites of spring you can’t forget: Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring Ballet, which is even in today’s jaded world, described as Orgasmic. Pagan. Sacrifice, raw and sensual http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/11/100-year-on-stravinskys-ballet-the-rite-of-spring-is-still-creating-a-stir-3591436/#ixzz43vZsajlO But it was it’s debut (in one of the premier opera houses in Paris) that made even this ballet go down in a toe dancer’s infamy: on the evening of 29 May 1913 in Paris at the premiere of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring…when The Rite descended into a riot, the story goes. Various accounts tell of hissing and boos followed by fights, challenges to duels and the like. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22691267 something you don’t see allot at ballets before or since this debut performances and which made this particular Rite notorious for all time. I mean if you can shock Paris this much what can you expect in the rest of the world?
“The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase.”–— E.B. White
There are of course songs about spring: April in Paris (1956) Count Baise, April Love (1957) Pat Bonne And of course there are lyrics like I love Paris in the SPRING TIME (of course they go on to praise the fall as well but we’re not doing fall this time…and beside unlike spring fall has another name: Autumn—“Autumn,” a Latin word, first appears in English in the late 14th century, and gradually gained on “harvest
.” In the 17th century, “fall” came into use, almost certainly as a poetic complement to “spring,” and it competed with the other terms. http://www.livescience.com/34260-fall-autumn-season-names.html). Even the King (Elvis) sang of the season: Spring fever comes to everyone
Spring fever, it’s time for fun
Get up, get out spring is everywhere
: Elvis Presley – Spring Fever Lyrics | MetroLyrics
In 1962 Rachel Carson brought much attention to the possibility of a loss of much we cherished about spring in her book: SILENT SPRING in which: The book documented the detrimental effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring and while this is mostly common knowledge (though we seem to develop new issues daily) now, was very new to us then. The book did: spur… a reversal in national pesticide policy, led to a nationwide ban on DDT for agricultural uses, and inspired an environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.“
In the Musical (I only saw it at the movies) Camelot there is a great number called THE LUSTY MONTH OF MY
AFTER YOU WATCH THIS I THINK MY GOAL OF EXPLAINING ALL THING SPRING HAS BEEN MET
Do you agree?
A man has every season while a woman only has the right to spring.
Jane Fonda
(these last 2 pictures are from Scotland)
Spring is here! Why doesn’t my heart go dancing?
Spring is here! Why isn’t the waltz entrancing?
No desire, no ambition leads me
Maybe it’s because nobody needs me
Spring is here! Why doesn’t the breeze delight me?
Stars appear, why doesn’t the night invite me?
Maybe it’s because nobody loves me
Spring is here I hear
Spring is here! Why doesn’t my heart go dancing?
Spring is here! Why isn’t the waltz entrancing?
No desire, no ambition leads me
Maybe it’s because nobody needs me
Spring is here! Why doesn’t the breeze delight me?
Stars appear, why doesn’t the night invite me?
Maybe it’s because nobody loves me
Spring is here I hear
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the “First Lady of Song”, “Queen of Jazz”, and “Lady Ella”, was an American jazz and song vocalist.
