Early Daffodils

On several different posts this winter, I've alluded to the unusually warm weather we've had. This week, for example, the last week of winter and the first week of spring, I have the a/c turned on, as the outside temperature is over 80 degrees! Unheard of! In a normal spring, I try to wait until late May or early June to switch on the a/c. The unseasonable temps have had the wonderful bonus of early blooms!

Every time I see daffodils in great masses like this, I am reminded of the Wordsworth poem, "Daffodils."

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.      

We visited William Wordsworth's home in Grasmere in The Lake District in July of 2006,  well past the daffodil season. How I would love to go when they are in bloom!

Emma is home from college this week on Spring Break. Many of her classmates are in Florida, but we are having weather just as pleasant here in O-HI-O!