i try not to anthropomorphize (phew! long word for only one cup of coffee!) too often, (ok, ok, soft toys not included. Right, Murray?)

But while i was out yesterday, going through my neighborhood on streets I know well (I go to the library every week, to the post office two or three times a week maybe) I couldn't help it. Everything was so brave. In the seven or so blocks between the post office and chez roscoe, i saw so much color. And in an excessively gray place, as Seattle is in winter (sorry, i know most of you have it far worse) but yesterday there were layers of gray upon layers of other gray. Sky, ground, sidewalk, from under my wheels to the horizon and up, gray. And then there were the brave little plants. The determined little flowers. Typical of Seattle. One warm day and you see two things: 1) someone walking around in shorts and flipflops and 2) confused little tree buds and flowers coming up even though there was really only one good warm day.
i grew up in a place where spring was announced/signaled/welcomed by the bright and delicate flowering of forsythia all OVER the damn place. They're common where I grew up, in connecticut, but less so here. But on the way to and from Greenwood Avenue yesterday, i saw a cascade of delicate branches with little yellow flowers. This was not my first sign that spring was afoot - our next door neighbor's crocuseseses have been up for several days, poor things. I'd planted some years back - one year when we seemed to have no spring - but they're gone now. Hers are so welcome - purple and white and yellow and the purple-stripey ones. And they're smart enough to close up in cold. Which it am here. Despite what the flowers think and what Flower Central promised them. Still with the "look, it's sunny so it must be time,you'll love it" stuff. It's not time to come up yet, darn it!

I saw cherry trees barely in bloom and two doors down, cherry trees in full blossom with their "oh believe me, it's spring" pink flowers. I saw one traffic circle (roundabout) with some very audacious little daffodils. Now, look. Okay, okay, yeah, Stu saw a temperature sign that read 60 degrees a day or two earlier, but that was a fluke. It's not daffodil weather yet. Really it's not. There's no place in all this gray for pink and purple, and shades of yellow.

And yet, there they were, unabashed, cheerful as hell and intent on sticking it out. Sheesh. Ya gotta love it. My reaction tends to be to yell "go back in, we're not ready yet!" And to figure out how to knit little sweaters, little flower cozies to use every night when it's still down in the 30s. They're the vanguard, aren't they? They're the advance team.

The color is especially appreciated as it contrasts with the grays. And the taupes (as we discussed over lunch yesterday, the non-color of taupe is appearing like the proverbial mushroom all over town in every condo development. And while, yes, it's a step up from b.s. brown/green (don't ask) it's getting tiresome and pretty hideous.

So let's hear it for the little scout flowers, giving their all so that the bulbs deep in the ground can sleep another week or so. We all get that. And just for that? I'm wearing a bright pink tee shirt. The taupe one went back in the drawer. Go spring!