Surely one of the most satisfying things about any kind of journal keeping is the Gilbert White-like sense it can convey of seasonal continuity or change. At dusk yesterday, Jesus’s plum tree burst into bloom. I note that last year, after a particularly long and evil Winter, it had just started to flower on April 4th; in 2009, blossom had started to appear on March 23rd. I don’t know what the plum tree was doing in 2008 because I didn’t mention it. However, I do recall hailstones the size of golf balls at Durness – it certainly wasn’t plum blossom weather.
nor were there butterflies . . .
. . .or beetles on the budding gorse.
Anyway, the Spring weather is glorious, and we have been out enjoying it at The Braids
hang on . . . are those your feet on a rough path, in normal shoes?
you fookin bet they are!
and what’s Tom doing off work on a Thursday?
Well, today he is on strike, and a walk was just what was needed after a morning on the picket line. If I had any labour to withdraw, I would certainly be withdrawing it.
Slow-cooked lamb for supper. The windows open. A good day.
Just found your blog and am looking forward to reading it through. Could you divulge where you found the lovely shoes? Thank you.
Gail
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Gorgeous spring day and SOLIDARITY with your striker!
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Oh, here’s to those lovely shoes…….. and Bruce’s lolloping leap ……. and for being on strike on a sunny day ….. and here’s to your Spring over there……
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You three are beautiful beings.
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You certainly have “sprung”. Luv the shoes, the walk and the lamb…and luvly Bruce!! Great post.
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It’s good to see you in your own shoes again.
Tell Tom that we, french uni teachers and researchers back you with all our hearts. I hope your fight will end up better than our several month long strike in 2009, which was a failure.
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I’ve been on plum blossom watch all week hoping each day I draw back the curtains that today will be the day – funnily today I was just wondering if my blog would tell me when it blossomed last year – hope there are many more good days than bad for you this spring.
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Love the shoes ! Love the plum blossom ! Happy spring :D
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Look at Bruce! That is the happiest dog ever.
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Lucky Duck! We are in for 11 degrees again tonight. Its just as cold as it was in January & there is not so much as a bud in the yard. Thankfully, I have some happy little seedlings in the house or I’d go stir crazy.
Enjoy the lamb.
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Yay! Congratulations! I love when the spring trees bloom. My favorite time of year! I just hope they decide to do it soon here!
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The title makes me think of English lessons (spring, sprang, sprung? )
And the photos – well, as much as I like winter and snow, I too begin to long for spring now…
Have a nice weekend!
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I actually did a happy dance about you wearing regular shoes! YAY!
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Glad you had a good day :)
It never ceases to amaze me how happy those first few spring days can make me. They’re not here yet, but your post makes me realize they’re not too far off.
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Your pics and post show such a lovely day. Bruce looks as though he was puffed; must have been the spring weather.
I love where you looked down at your very cute shoes, “normal shoes” and kind of took the moment to appreciate and thank yourself for being you, and the work and effort you have put in to keep yourself fit and out there doing things you love.
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I was on strike yesterday too. Felt quite guilty to be getting such good weather for it!
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i see those normal shoes!!! go get’em lady! walk that trial right outta town! (or something like that)
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Mmmm looks lovely…..can’t wait for Spring to come here…..!
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Oh I love the shoes! Where are they from?
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Huzzah for normal shoes on a sunny day! And good for Tom, standing up for his rights.
I love that photo of Bruce leaping for joy. It’s Spring!
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We’re back up to Durness/Blanakeil on the 8th of April…. I am itching in anticipation of a fine spring break. Thank you for the link back to your archives, it intensified my anticipation another 10 fold….
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How lovely!
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Utterly lovely. Bare feet too.
Am waiting in glorious expectation of asparagus ( my friend’s is already up in Cornwall). First cut 14th April last year.
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Your glorious blog is coming up VERY strangely on my iPad as of yesterday. When I enter your site a little tab at the right tells me to swipe. When I do a collection of four recent entries pop up on the screen and then everything closes down and I’m back on my dashboard. I was so happy to see the old NEEDLED blog on my ‘real’ computer. Do you have any idea what’s going on?
P.S. Love the shoes.
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Looks absolutely marvelous. From the shoes to the blossoms to the dog and lamb. Particularly the lamb. Whatever recipe you’ve got going there positively sends delights to my olfactory. Nevermind that I cant’ smell it from here. I can imagine I can, and it smells heavenly.
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goodness … I began at Gilbert White and from there flitted to Thomas Pennant, Johnson & Boswell’s Journals of the Western Isles, Sydney Padua and her Babbage & Lovelace … thanks for the pleasant diversion
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So good!
I love that shot of Tom and Bruce on the hill with all the roofs in the distance.
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Such wonderful notes. I love escaping with you.
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Great!!!
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Funny the things we measure our progress by. They look fookin’ great, and I’ll bet they felt great too.
The UK Uni situation is bloody dire. We’re hoping it isn’t catching.
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Wazzshoes! Hurrah! X
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Good for you twoĀ ! From distant France two fellow university teachers support you in this fight, which is also ours in many ways. Maybe you would find this website interestingĀ : http://www.sauvonsluniversite.com/
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Woo hoo! those shoes are gorgeous!
The trees have just turned chartreuse-y brown on the way to their autumnal colours in the past week here in NZ. They’re making that lovely rustley noise in the breeze as I type and I’m looking at getting a cozier dressing gown. I hope the warmer weather is balmy and rejuvenating – perhaps even that sort of golden warm saturation of the innards of you. This being my first summer in 2 years I was heady on the warmth of the sunshine. The urban hills here (old volcanoes) create similiar-ish views to yours in Edinburgh. Your post makes the seasons seem to be a direct exchange place to place.
Best of luck with the strike.
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mmmmmm. send some of that lamb over. maybe in a pouch on bruce’s back so he can have a visit with me as well. ;)
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What an elegant looking bouquet garni! Looks like you had a lovely walk and more power to Tom. Up the workers!
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oh, and bruce is such a big powerful hound now, glistening in the sun!
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i am doting on the gilbert white, many thanks.
http://www.masshist.org/thomasjeffersonpapers/cfm/doc.cfm?id=garden_1
i don’t know if i’ve ever thanked you sufficiently for all the wonderful books you’ve brought into my life — odham’s, dryad pamphlets, quaker girls’ samplers, bill brown’s a sense of things, arkhipov’s home-made, etc.
thank you.
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………………….oh – on my walk yesterday I saw a butterfly, a puddock and a fish jumping – not bad for March……………
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So pleased you had a beautiful day in many different ways and your comment about the shoe wearing made me laugh out loud.
Spring is so full of promise ……. onward
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I wasn’t at college today either – got lots of homework done though.
I clicked on your ‘I didn’t mention it’ link and there were my lovely Pentlands. Awwwh!
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Lovely to see you having such a lovely day.
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sounds like a perfect day! :)
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What a beautiful set of pictures, and what a lovely (if perhaps, occasionally, bittersweet) day — I’ve always found participating in political and labor actions to be a combination of exhilarating, exhausting, unifying and sad, and I’m sorry that you all are in that state, even as I’m happy that you all are fighting back. Good luck with all and everything on that front!
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Nothing finer than slow cooked lamb. Except possibly slow cooked lamb after a good walk.
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Beautiful blossom..Edinburgh is always a couple of weeks ahead of us, only 28 miles away but 800 feet up. Crocuses are blooming and gooseberries and raspberries have huge buds.
Visited the local nesting swans today whilst walking friend’s dog and they have a bright red toy yacht added to their nest!
Thanks for Gilbert White link, I used to visit Selbourne regularly as a teenager when I lived in Hampshire and I love his writings.
Lovely day..thanks for sharing and hooray for shoes!
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Woo, hoo to you and your lovely, lovely shoes!
Also, all power to Tom for the strike – a colleague of mine has just learned that her lecturer contract is not being renewed after June :o(
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so many wonderful milestones…
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Yay for spring walks! Down in Devon we are also going through a wave of strikes at Exeter. Here’s to hoping for a brighter future.
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Beautiful tree. Thanks for sharing. No flowering trees in bloom on Iowa USA yet.
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Wonderful to see you in ‘normal’ shoes! We used to live near Selborne – the last time we went back to Hampshire, we went to Gilbert White’s house – but only to the tearoom! I envy you the lamb – I’m on ‘soft’ food for a couple of weeks, until I get used to the new teeth! (fortunately most cake is soft!!)
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Hooray for Spring, Shoes, and Solidarity! Bread and roses; bread and roses.
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I was on strike also today and stood on the picket line this morning (despite living an hour away from campus…and some who live within the same city didn’t even show which made me cross!). Anyway…It was fab to come home in the afternoon and take my Ralph boy out for a lovely walk in the sunshine!!
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It is quite funny (?) that trees/bushes are in blossom in SCotland, but not in Denmark. We are further south, I presume, but never the less we still have a forecast for the weekend saying frost at night and maybe snow!
Those shoes are lovely, and I know it must be thrilling to be able to wear them. Congrats. Karen.
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Woo-hoo! The sites of spring were great; we just got 6 more inches of snow so it was nice to know what blossoms look like.
The best photo, HOWEVER, was your shoes. No that is rejuvenation beyond what spring along brings!
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And what ADORABLE normal shoes they are!
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Congrats! that’s awesome (and those shoes are beautiful). Hmmm something about the garlic and that tied up roast bundle are calling out to me.. have a wonderful day and dinner.
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So pretty! And I want those shoes :) Fill me in on the details of the shoes!!
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Great shoes! And congrats to you for being able to switch to them!
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that story about the strike is really interesting – it’s nice to be informed about what’s going on in higher ed in Scotland! I hope Tom and all the other laborers come out of this with fair compensation for their work.
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Yahoo to normal shoes! I covet those shoes, and your spring weather. We had a foot of snow yesterday, but it will melt soon.
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Thanks for sharing a bit of your good day.
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Looks beautiful! I was just looking at my Japanese Cherry trees the other day thinking how wonderful it is that they bloomed in march this year, last you in the Pacific Northwest it was so warm that they sprung early, the year before that they were so late!
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It sounds like the best! May I say that the photo of those shoes on that path are very thrilling to this blog follower?
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I second this!
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and a fourth!
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Woo hoo! Good for you.
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