Spring At Last

March Madness has nothing to do with basketball in this household. While I relish the beginning of spring and enjoy a brief respite between frigid cold and oppressive heat, my work-life becomes a morass of grading and preparation marked by an even briefer "break" between quarters.

Things are worse this year, because winter's "gift" of snow days has left me with two classes for which I had to arrange an alternative meeting date, and for which some material couldn't be made up. My poor Intro to Humanities class was good humored (especially when I forgot that I'd arranged to meet them at the Dallas Museum of Art last Sunday to make up for the extra snow day), but a bit dazed by our last meeting. I tried to smooth things over with sushi and other nibbles as we performed a modified Popul Vuh and they showed off their projects for the quarter. But now I have to revise the next version of the class to avoid any potential confusion, especially since it's an eight o'clocker on Monday mornings. At least this next class will begin when we're well into Spring's promise, and (barring really weird conditions) won't have to worry about snow.

The universe is helping. Once again we got a spectacular heavenly display, this time at the equinox when we enjoyed a "super" perigee moon. Beloved Spouse and I snapped on the telephoto lens and set the tripod up in several locations, hoping to get a decent shot. The next morning (on the equinox itself) the moon was still visible, but it had gone cloudy so I couldn't get a dawn version. The opening shot for this post was one of the first I took, hand-held, and thus rather fuzzy. But I liked the effect of the tree "cradling" the rising moon. By the time we got the one below, the clouds were gone and we had the camera on a tripod. I'm pretty sure the Beloved Spouse took this one.

And then, of course, the House Clock performed on schedule, as the sun rose for the first time this year through the east window of the dining room, spilling sun on everything. A couple of days later I noticed another potential feature tied to the equinox: the possibility that the sun reaches from the front (glass) door to the back of the house for the first time on the first day of Spring. I'll have to wait a year to test it, but on the 22nd I noticed a straight line of sunlight. It may have appeared earlier, but I just didn't notice.

At any rate, the photos provided me with my first Skywatch Friday entry in weeks. And since I'll undoubtedly be out of commission next week, this may be it for another fortnight. I hope everyone has a great weekend.