BEDM - Spring is here!

At last! It's felt like a long winter. I always struggle in the darkness and cold of winter, but this last one seemed worse than I remember. Lights helped. I have a Philips sunrise alarm clock which gradually lights up the room with a warm sunrise glow. I also have a small bright light box which I used ever morning at breakfast. These two things made a difference, more difference than I expected, in enabling me to get up each day and get going.

But in truth, there's nothing like the real warmth and light of spring sunshine. Mornings and evenings are lighter now and it lifts my mood enormously. I love watching the flowers and trees bursting into life. Now is the time of magnolia, cherry blossom, daffodils and tulips. Of course, with the blossom comes hayfever for me. I'm allergic to tree pollen, I think and sneeze from March to May. It could be worse. The itchy eyes and streaming nose are easily treated with Loratadine and they're gone by the summer.

Spring is a time of hope and I'm trying to be hopeful in a few things right now. It's not easy, but Spring reminds me to hope.

This is a post for Rosalilium's Blog Every Day in May.

fuzzy photographic proof

too early butterfly, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

cameraphone pic.

butterfly update

I found it under the radio when I was dusting. It was folded up and not moving. I thought it was dead, so I opened the window and threw it outside. It instantly wove up and fluttered down to the ground where it rested on the grass for a while. I hope the sunshine lasts long enough for it to find somewhere warm to sleep again before the cold gets to it. It's not really warm enough for butterflies yet.

february fluttering

I've just been surprised by a butterfly fluttering around my room. According to the UK butterflies website, it's a Small Tortoiseshell. Reading the page about it, it might have been hibernating in my room all winter and has now decided it's warm enough to emerge. It spent a few minutes flapping wildly at the window and is now settled between the radio and the window. I wonder what it'll do. Should I open the window and encourage it out or just leave it be? I don't regularly open that window at the moment, it's far too cold.

ETA: It's gone now. I don't know where.