A Haven for Vee

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Just Past the Day of Days

Oh I knew that E.B. White would have already said it better than I ever could. 
There is another sort of day that needs celebrating in song — the day of days when spring at last holds up her face to be kissed, deliberate and unabashed. On that day no wind blows either in the hills or in the mind, no chill finds the bone. It is a day that can come only in a northern climate, where there had been a long background of frigidity, a long deficiency of sun.
We've just been through this magical moment — which was more than a moment and was a whole morning...
from One Man's Meat

Yes, and the memory of it will have to get us through another while. (Say, if you've never read E.B. White, I can not recommend doing so highly enough.)  

I ran out last night to take a photo of the azaleas just blooming before the rain and wind beats them  into the ground.



Stellar photos they are not, but perhaps they'll provide enough memory to carry us into summer's blooms.


Happy memories to you!

36 comments:

  1. The azaleas are beautiful! I hope this is a bright sunshiny day for you Vee. It is raining here.

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  2. They are beautiful .
    the shot looking up into the sky ~ i loved seeing the tree with the greening leave in the background too.
    Sharing our moments in pictures ... I do love it so !!

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  3. A beautiful glimpse! Love the perspective of that first photo. North Carolina continues on with what it does best...heat and humidity! I'm sure others that live here and are used to things will not like my comment.
    Hope color and light shine through the rest of the week regardless of the weather!

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  4. I love your quote. It is perfect for the last few days. My Azalea got beat up too by wind, hail and rain on Sunday.
    Everything else got finished off last night. New blooms will come. Your pictures tell the story.

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  5. Beautiful quotation! Guess I need to get into more than Charlotte's Web and Trumpet of the Swan, huh! I'm checking that out. Love it. Gorgeous blossoms, so welcomed after such a long long winter.

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  6. The first picture took my breath away.
    love your quote.

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  7. E. B. White is the best. Beautiful quote and love the azaleas. Hang in there!

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  8. Good Morning, I ran out on Sunday morning and took a picture of my Lilacs and also cut a few to bring in the house. Because as we also had a terrible cold snap!I I did look up that author and I have only read of course Charlotte's Web ;o)
    Roxy

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  9. Azaleas remind me of my mother's home--blooming by the front walkway and welcoming all into her home! Beautiful photos, XOXO

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  10. See now, our weather putzes along most even-temperedly with the mercury going up and down, but not too much. More like a gentle rolling sea. Spring comes slowly and lingers long. Your weather, on the other hand, dips and dives like an eagle from highs to lows in sudden gusts. My azalea is just beginning to bloom, barely, and there's yours in all its glory.
    Maybe another analogy would be the tortoise and the hare. Our weather is very tortoise-y whereas yours is quite hare-ish.

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  11. Vee, your photos are so pretty. I didn't know azaleas grew up north. I am from Ohio and never saw them growing until we moved to KY. Ours here in NC have just about had it...not too pretty anymore. I hope the wind and rain didn't beat them up too bad!

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  12. We went from cold rain to close to too hot and humid.....I swear, Vee, if we don't have a spring I am going to move. Love your blooms, thanks for the memory - may have to savor it.

    I can't grow azaleas but just north of me my MIL has them all over and they're breathtaking.

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  13. That is a beautiful passage by E. B. White. Don't you love when you read words in which someone has expressed the very thing that you are feeling?! I am happy that you are entering a gentler season.

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  14. I love E.B White. Modern children's books barely hold a candle to his works. As long as the rain doesn't freeze I suppose it will be OK. We had a hard freeze here last night. Thanks for the azalea close up. I love and miss seeing them bloom in my own garden here.

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  15. Beautiful blog and beautiful thoughts. My first time here and I'll be back and I'm going to check out E.B. White.

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  16. Beautiful!! Been raining here, even had a storm. Now the sun came out and it is humid (expecting bad weather later here). Thanks for sharing your photos. Blessings

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  17. E.B White knew the northeast quite well I'd say. Beautiful quote from him. And beautiful photos! The shot of the azaleas and the sky/sun and green leafy trees is gorgeous. One of those special moments and you captured it. It's a beauteous day here today and just lovely if you're in a sheltered spot in the sun but out of the wind. I hope the rain doesn't last too long.

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  18. They are nice. Our azalea's where really showy this year. Even though we have naturally acidic soil, which azaleas crave, I fertilize with Osmocote for flowers. It lasts for 3 months, I think. Speaking of fertilizers, our garden has improved after my *cough* mistake. I've seen the error of my ways this time and promise to always read the directions before applying! Holy Toledo! *lol* ~:)

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  19. Your flowers are gorgeous in the summer! We are trying to get ours off to a good start because once the extreme heat hits - well - we just hope they hang on til the cooler temps of fall. Our neighbor has been watering for us while we've been gone. We go home Wednesday night making it 11 days away. They would have all died by now if not for our neighbor!

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  20. Look at all the green on your trees!!! We don't have azaleas, but the forsythias are in bloom. It's a start.

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  21. What a lovely piece by E. B. White. Your flowers look beautiful. Hopefully they will spring back up after the rain.

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  22. Love that E.B.White quote so much!! I must read this book. Your pictures ARE stellar - so beautiful.

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  23. E B White said that so well!
    It's been a beautiful sunny day here today. : )

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  24. It is so beautiful here, today. And I love it! But last night we had tornado warnings all over, flodding (in our basement, too) and washed out bridges and roads in Bath Township, where I live. Still, no one was hurt. I cannot be grateful enough for that.

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  25. Pretty azaleas and hoping they withstood the storm.

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  26. What a beautiful peak at the sun from the side of your home. I really have never read EB White, but this is beautiful!

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  27. Your blooms are very pretty...no flowers around this new place so I must plant some in pots for the summer.
    Still totally dry here...no rain in sight.

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  28. We love E.B. White in my family. My brother was an avid reader, but I think I can safely say that of all the authors he read in his lifetime, E.B. White never budged from the top of his list.

    As to the photos and the moment and the flowers? That's beautiful. I was just thinking yesterday that this year was the first time since moving to Georgia in the '70s that I can not recall the azalea show. For one thing, it was even faster this year than ever. For another, I was caught up with my mom and the whole surgery and recovery thing and apparently didn't bother to notice it. I could kick myself. I'll have to wait another full year.

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  29. Lovely, and i like the pink bokeh thing that appeared in the first photo. Like others, we're heading in to a dark and dreary week of rain.

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  30. Oh yes! I sat outside yesterday basking in the Springness! Finally, beautiful weather. Azaleas in bloom, tulips too, and the promise of peonies beckoning.

    So glad your Spring finally arrived too!

    Deanna

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  31. Great from E B White, thanks for sharing! Wonderful photographs, love, love azaleas! It's a cool morning down here in south Texas, a total surprise!

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  32. They are beautiful photos and I'm so thankful it finally arrived for you!

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  33. Oh I know EXACTLY what you mean Vee! Isn't spring the happiest season? Our Michigan winters are only bearable by thinking of springtime. My girls used to listen to a tape of E.B. White reading Charlotte's Web every night at bedtime, they literally wore out several sets of cassette tapes of that story. We always thought it was so funny that they wanted to be sent off to sleep with the words, "Where's papa going with that axe?" I guess I never looked into whether Mr. White wrote anything else, now I'm curious and will have to look for some of his books at the library.

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    1. E.B. White wrote for The New Yorker for many years. His writing is witty, warm, concise. I adore the genre of essay because I sometimes have the attention span of a gnat. Nothing is better than a relatively brief piece of writing that soars. Such is E.B. White's.

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