This is Almost Spring
We had spring break last week. Yeah. We had spring break while winter scrapes its fingernails across the pavement as Mother Nature attempts to drag it away from us. Oh! And if that analogy is not dramatic enough, winter is also snarling as it goes, "You can pry your yards and windshields from my cold, dead fingers." This dude won't let go. On day three of spring break, I wore a fleece jacket. On day four it snowed. On day six I strolled around an outdoor mall with a light jacket that was probably a layer too many actually. That night? IT SNOWED. What is going on here?!
I'm in the middle of a big project at work. I can't say that sentence without a little voice in my head, saying, "This isn't real. You're really eight, at your grandmother's house, playing Big Girl, Big Girl with Felicity and pretending you have a big project at work. That's why you can only say "big project", because you don't actually know what big people do at work." Unfortunately, despite my persistent feeling that my day job is indeed the more pretend portion of my life, the project is very real. And it's basically that heavy thing under which I have been trapped lately. (Though generally only within normal office hours). It's sort of like - snow. And so, on my days off last week and in each of my very welcome free evenings, I bring in a little sunshine.
A Brand-New Pretty Anne
This gorgeousness is from a new group of Anne covers, put out by Sourcebooks. I have no fewer than seven versions of Anne of Green Gables - possibly more. But when I saw these new covers, the number grew by one. (They're not very expensive. I was able to buy them and give to Matt Damon's and Ben Affleck's charities, a partnership of which I may have heard only because one lucky contributor would get to meet the two of them in Hollywood on Oscar weekend, but still.) It's been two years since I read the Anne books last, so I started in again recently. It's a very refreshing breath of spring in the midst of a very winter kind of work life to settle into an Anne book. I actually prefer Anne of Avonlea to the series opener (for goodness sake, don't tell the children's literature police). I get so excited for certain chapters as I know they are coming - the surprise visit from Mrs. Morgan (the famous author) on the day Anne is changing the feathers in her bed; Just a Happy Day, from which I get my philosophy that some days are Pearly and others are really just the Oyster; and Sweet Miss Lavendar, which gives us the first outside glimpse (in the form of Charlotta the Fourth's admiration) of how graceful Anne has become as a young adult, and which leads to the first sentimental heart flutter to break through Anne's practical, strictly-friendish relationship with Gilbert.
To read all these delights between a gorgeous cover (with painting and hand lettering by Canadian artist Jacqui Oakley) - well, it's a salve basically. It's happiness on paper, and I'm so grateful.