{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}
April shimmers like a freshly polished gemstone, but it isn't always sweetness and light. Powerful thunder storms have made this month famous and brought with it promises of May flowers, as any fan of rhyming will quickly tell you. April can mean the tail end of winter or the glorious start of spring, depending on where you reside (assuming you do so in the Western Hemisphere).
It's a month I welcome with open arms, and no matter how rainy the days, I feel my energy levels perking back up. The knowledge that we're closer to summer's start than to (next) winter's always makes me a joyful camper. I know that I'm not alone here in the slightest and would love to hear about some of the things that are fuelling your excitement levels as we hid mid-April!
There's so much to do and see, smell, taste and enjoy about the fourth month of the year. Yard sale season is back in full force, and with it my Saturdays (health permitting) become exciting jaunts around town in the hopes of unearthing marvelous vintage treasures for both my Etsy shop and my own wardrobe (and home). The past couple of years have been pretty darn slow on the vintage front at such outdoor sales, but one never knows when and where lady luck may smile on them again, and that thought keeps on getting me up at the crack of dawn on the weekends with a big smile on my face and a symphony of coins jingling in my pockets.
The local farmer's market will be starting again soon, too, and most green grocers and supermarkets are stocking fresh, grown in BC produce already. Tiny, elegant strawberries that are perfect precisely as they are, no need for sugar or lashing of cream - though I am rarely opposed to either. Tender, proud spears of asparagus, delightful little waxy new potatoes, and plenty of recipe enlivening herbs of the season are ours to avail of once more.
Though too soon to go swimming (unless you're a duck or fan of polar bear dips), the lakes and beaches that make this part of the country the majestic holiday dentition that it is are waking up. Swarms of walkers take to their sands and sidewalks, lapping up the first ice cream cones they've eaten outside in months, and stopping periodically to take photos of the sweeping desert landscape or to turn the lens on themselves in selfie form.
Spring, like autumn, rarely lasts long in Canada, and that makes me cherish it all the more. The colours, and in some cases, imagery, in today's edition of Flickr Favourites celebrate the liveliness and loveliness alike of early spring, when it's not uncommon to wear open toed shoes with a coat still, and to rarely venture beyond your home without an umbrella.
Before we know it, we will blink and be well into the swelteringly hot dog days of summer - or, two blinks later - hauling the autumn decorations out of storage. Take time to stop and smell the roses (and lilacs, and daffodils, and honeysuckle) this season, both literally and figuratively. Life has a way of getting so busy in the 21st century that we forget about all the action unfolding right under our windowsills and beyond our front doors.
This year, let's all make a point not to do that. Instead, slip on your favourite vintage sundress, turn your face skyward, and let the uplifting, gorgeous rays of spring sunshine remind you of the countless reasons why it is an amazing gift to be alive and be able get to enjoy the good points, as well as the storms (literal or figurative), of every season - very much including those of spring, glorious spring!
