Tag: spring

Remembering 2011

Today is the first day of spring, and exactly one year since I switched the design on my blog from Twenty-Eleven to Franklin. I thought I’d take a look back at how if all else fails… looked before the facelift, you know, for the sake of posterity.

if all else fails…top

if all else fails…bottom — This look into the past brought to you by The Wayback Machine

What was I thinking?

Really. I thought that was clever branding? Thank goodness my taste has developed over time.

Not that there’s anything wrong with Twenty-Eleven. I still think it’s one of the best and most versatile themes we have on WordPress.com, and I regularly recommend it to people. But I think I’ll be sticking with Franklin for a while 🙂

A Springtime Refresh

The first day of spring has always felt like a holiday to me. Not a stay-away-from-work holiday, but a special day that deserves to be celebrated. And this September first is worthy of celebration indeed. It has been warming up over here for the past two weeks, so much so that we’ve been sleeping with the window open, the better to enjoy the chirping and croaking of seemingly hundreds of frogs that had woken from hibernation early.

But my favourite part is when, apparently overnight, almost without one noticing, everything suddenly erupts in the most beautiful and varied shades of green. Spring is a time of new life. It’s time of new beginnings, at least for me, much more than New Year’s is.

Continue reading “A Springtime Refresh” →

Spring is in the air…

…and I’m feeling strangely optimistic. I suppose it’s because spring signifies a new start in more ways than one where I’m concerned – I was born in September, after all.

Spring in SA has arrived right on cue. Friday still we had terribly cold weather and even snow in some parts of the country, but on Monday the sun shone warm and bright in the sky. The nights are still chilly, but during the day it’s already warm enough to make one believe summer is on its way.

Green shoots are peeking out all over the place, courtesy of some unseasonal winter rain two weeks ago, and my neighbour’s clivia is in full bloom on our communal porch.

Clivia

One can’t help but feel positive in circumstances like this. I’ve even dropped my winter laziness and started exercising again. Here’s hoping I can keep it up (not just the exercise, but the attitude as well).