Trousers...off!

There's a Tom Waits song called Broken Bicycles. It's from his wonderful soundtrack to the Coppola film One from the Heart, and it's about the baggage and wreckage of old and broken relationships. There's a couplet that really fits my mood today. It goes:

The seasons can turn on a dime,
Somehow I forget every time...

A week ago it was chilly and grey, and subzero at night. Today it was maybe 17 degrees Celsius in Oxford, with blue sky, warm sunshine, and pink and white blossom in profusion. Sharp shadows everywhere, and the colours of the brickwork all warmed up in the sunlight.

Nature has whipped off its metaphorical trousers, kicked off its shoes and socks, and is running naked across a green field of grass towards a shallow river of clear water. Gaia's idealised personification will soon be splashing about and kicking water into the air for sheer joy.

Glad to be alive.