Poem for Saturday and Spring Arrival

Sonnet 98
By William Shakespeare

From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue
Could make me any summer's story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;
Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
   Yet seem'd it winter still, and, you away,
   As with your shadow I with these did play.

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It was a gorgeous 80-degree Friday in the DC area, which means I had my windows open all day. That was lovely, as was listening to the Carolina wrens which have come back into the area, and seeing the daffodils and crocuses that are coming up all around the neighborhood. What is less lovely is that I now have stink bugs in my house -- or, to be specific, more stink bugs than we had during the winter, of which any number more than zero is too high. (These bugs were never seen in North America before 1998 and are now all over the east coast.) My cats, who will furiously chase moths and even the occasional ant that gets into the kitchen, have no interest in eating the stink bugs, unfortunately.

I did have to stay in to finish a review of Star Trek: First Contact, which is like two different movies to me -- a time travel story that I love, and a horror flick that I really don't like. Then I took a long walk to look at the neighborhood flowers and saw a bunny in one of the bushes near the woods, of whom I have blurry mobile phone photos below. My parents were out tonight, so we did Shabbat dinner ourselves (hot dogs and macaroni, because warm weather requires summer food), then watched the Billy Joel concert from Shea Stadium two years ago on PBS, where Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Tony Bennett, et al performed with him.













Fannish5: Who are your five favourite female characters of colour?
1. Uhura, Star Trek (the original one)
2. Nikita, Nikita (the current one)
3. Lao Ma, Xena: Warrior Princess
4. Kasidy Yates, Deep Space Nine
5. Rani Chandra, The Sarah Jane Adventures

Happy Purim!