The First Day if Spring & What’s Coming Up…
Daffodil array
Today is 1 September–& that means it is the first day of spring here in New Zealand, and I must admit it’s feeling like it with daffodils, forsythia and wattle all busitn’ out all over and adding their different shadings of yellow to my garden, together with hellebores still doing their winter rose thing and magnolia stellata adding a more refined touch of pearl-shell and blush to the general exuberance.
Forsythia
So here’s a few photos to ‘go with’ the post & share the colour. 🙂
—
.
And just to recap on what’s coming up:
Later today (1 September, US EST) I will be featuring an interview with Juliet Marillier, focusing on her new YA novel Shadowfell, which is released this month in North America-. Plus to celebrate we’ll be doing a joint Shadowfell/The Heir of Night giveaway. So watch this space, here — and also, spread the word!
—
Tomorrow (Sunday 2) at 9.30 am I’ll be appearing at the Christchurch Writers Festival on the “Why YA” panel with John Boyne and Jane Higgins, compered by James Norcliffe. We’ll be discussing whether there is a genuine and valid divide between juvenile and adult writing, or whether YA is nothing more than a marketing phenomenon, as well as whether there are different types of YA fiction and what trends can be discerned in writing for the age group.
—
Also tomorrow and also as part of the festival, this time at 2.30 pm, I’ll be doing one of the Margaret Mahy memorial readings — in my case, I shall be reading from The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate, a personal favourite form the Margaret Mahy canon.
(You can read my personal tribute to Margaret Mahy here.)
I love the colors of spring! I’m sure there is no more hopeful flower than the daffodil 🙂
The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate is a big fave of mine too. Good luck with the reading!
Thanks, Wen. I read the book through this evening and fell in love with the glory of the language all over again so hope will do it justice tomorrow.
Nice flowers! 🙂 I can imagine that spring is a beautiful time of the year in New Zealand.
It is! Thank you, Seregil—especially as I know you will be anticipating #winteriscoming in Finland. But I suspect there is something very beautiful about spring everywhere: it’s that sense of returning and renewal. I also love just having seasons though, all of them. 🙂
Do enjoy spring. Just to emphasise the wonderful circularity of life, here incipient autumn beckons. Energetically farmers harvest the final crops. I get to gallop my mare across bare stubble fields roan with tilled chalk, racing upon the still point in the turning world.
I am enjoying spring, thank you—even the very spectacular electrical storm (with hail!) we just had this evening. But autumn is also one of my favourite seasons, if not my favourite, to be honest, so although I will not swap you my spring, having just had what felt like a very long winter, I can imagine enjoying that ride with you. Also I love that turn of phrase: “… racing upon the still point in the turning world.” Thank you!