A snow day in Spring ...

Every once and a while here in New England we have a year where winter lingers and lingers and lingers ... and all the so called pretty parts of winter seem to have a long faded away. We recently had another day where I was once again stuck in the house due to snow. I started this day frustrated with everything and all together bummed out. However, for some reason during the middle of this day that began so dreary I was reminded of this quote by Albert Camus that my mother had tattooed on one of the walls in my house growing up:

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."

I probably read these words at least once a day since I could read and so on until a left for college. It wasn't till then that I learned that my mother was not after all the the author of this quote (though she is quite profound and must have found something poignant or inspiring about it). It was also not until I was in college that also learned that the quote continued on.

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

Wow,  Is there a little bird that I can hire to sing this to me on those days where nothing seems to be going right? or even better maybe I should tattoo it on my wall?

... well however it made its way back into my head on this recent day, I am so glad it did.  

So as I was saying about my recent snow day ... Maybe that is what happened when I all of a sudden was thinking about this quote. Why out of no where, on a day that seemed so dreary and nothing was going right, and everything outside my window looked ugly. Maybe this why within minutes on this day, all of this changed. The day started to brighten and I suddenly remembered that I had promised two of my students that when Easter came we would tangle some eggs. Which made me think Spring. Which made me smile. I immediately blew out some eggs and began to cover the shell with tangles. The process went so fast and the during the time spent getting lost in my tangles, my whole perspective on the day and even the Winter that has been lingering and lingering and lingering seemed to be totally different and in a way totally wonderful. Instead of looking out my window and everything looking ugly, I saw a very different picture. I was loving the warmth from my stove and looking out over the snow covered lawn and discovering beautiful patterns that the shadows of the tall trees had created. I found myself cheering for the few blades of grass trying to poke through. I began thinking that this late snow was great nourishment to my garden to be. I was feeling proud of my huge pile of compost that was thanking me for all the winter meals we enjoyed.  And so I stared back at my egg and realized that this day wasn't so bad after all.

Here are some photos of the eggs I have been working on this week:

Here are the ones my students Gywn and Rachel made, they truly are amazing:

 

 Here is a little family portrait ... just because they look so cute in a bunch.

This is the Albert Camus quote that my mother tattooed on the wall when I was a kid.

Happy Late Winter or Early Spring ... or whatever it is you celebrate this beautiful time of year.

Smiles,
Molly 

PS ... The eggs used were all brown local eggs, compliments of my student Rachel's Chicken Farm. I personally blew out all the eggs and learned that if you put the blown out eggshells in the microwave for a minute or so, it strengthens the shell ... who knew? We used Pigma Microns in a variety of sizes to tangle our eggs and I then brushed on Krylon's Krystal Clear finish.