Peasant hands, I have asparagus pee, missing aspirants, and Spring has SPRUNG...

...and oh my, it is gorgeous outside. I can tell it is spring because all the fair weather joggers are wriggling out of their lairs like worms after a rainstorm.  Fall is my favorite, but I love all 4 seasons, and I am very happy spring has finally arrived.  Everyone here is insanely excited, because our winter has lasted FOREVERRRRRRRRRRuhhhhh...gasp.....  People are walking around smiling about nothing, and since people here don't usually smile, it must be nice outside!

And it's Friday.  And it's World Poetry Day!  Sooo...what could be more appropriate than a little William Blake?

To Spring
O Thou with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring?

The hills tell one another, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn'd
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!

Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumèd garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languish'd head,
Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.

I'd just like to note that Blake clearly had a different image of morning breath than we do.

And of course, you cannot forget a little of Will, from The Winter's Tale:
When daffodils begin to peer,
With heigh! The doxy over the dale,
Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.

I can also tell it is spring by allergy symptoms popping up.  I think my eyes LOOK normal, but I feel like they are in that half-lidded orgasmic position most of the day.  It'd be great if that were the real reason, but I am afraid that the pollen just does a number on me anymore.  And in case you weren't aware, sneezes are VERY loud in a museum.  VERY. LOUD.

So, spring vegetables...asparagus.  I get excited every February when it starts to pop up fresh at the grocery store.  Some people crave chocolate or coffee...I crave asparagus.  Roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper, splashed with lemon.  MMMM.  And yes, it comes with the usual hilarious side effect.  Asparagus pee, the scent of spring. :)  TMI?

Today my feet are battling pesky super-heroes!  Who needs 'em, anyway?

Have I mentioned how excited I am that Sock Dreams had these mitts in wool?  I can wear them to fort in April, I feel like it might be chillier this year than last.  I am now the latest style icon in the homeless chic movement.  Derelicte!  Mugatuuuu....   I was going to knit a short pair and an elbow length pair, so I am just down to elbow-length now.  

So, I have been going through some of my non-academic books (which are still about history, of course), and I found something I wanted to post here.  I have a book by Liza Picard about Victorian London between 1840-1870, and there is a great little section of tips for a well-bred lady of the time to catch a husband.  I am not listing them all, it's 3 pages, but here are some of the doozies:  

"Firstly we must consider the possibility that you may occasionally be apt to omit an h.  This tendency must be eradicated before even thinking of aspiring to be taken to be a lady.  There are several books of advice on the matter, which I will leave to your ingenuity to identify.  Nothing would so ruin your prospects as a missing aspirate.

Then, you must never been seen in an inelegant posture.  Blowing out a candle is decidedly inelegant.  If there is no handy extinguisher, let someone else distend their cheeks....as to laughing, it is usually inadvisable.

Most wind instruments are decidedly inelegant, they should be left to the gentlemen.  

When at the opera, assume an expression of transported delight, and ignore any tendency of the gentlemen in your party to spend their time surveying the other ladies in the house through their opera glasses.

An expression of admiring pleasure should be possible to sustain for most of the evening without becoming a rictus.  Practise daily, for increasing periods.  A conviction that your intended is the most desirable gentleman in every possible way already resides in his breast.  Show him, shyly but unmistakably, that you share this conviction."

So....what she's saying is that I have had some bad relationships in the past because my fife face is not sexy and I blow out my candles.  DAMMIT.  Well, now that I am armed with this NEW knowledge, I'm prepared to win myself one (or both) of these two men as husband!  Look out, boys!  

(Benedictus and Twhiddles)

And now, I must away to La Bohème, where I shall assume an expression of transported delight.  

"Two tickets to...La Boheem?"

"La Boh-EM...it's an OPERA."

"It's an opera."