butterflies. not here.

Or the call for SPRING. I've been waiting for it since it turned into summer last year. Meaningless to say that winter for me could only be for a week or two during Christmas time and the New Year, and then I would be most happy to say farewell. But here in Latvia it is as it is, spring does not come earlier than April or May, unfortunately.
Still I should not complain in this respect. I had a great remedy to survive winter. To spend two weeks over Christmas, my birthday and the New Year's Eve and the first days of 2007 in the sunny Phuket island far away from home. And those were amazing days. I have uploaded lots of pictures on my flickr account and I plan to create a story of my travel here some time later.
But this short story is about the call for spring. A couple of days ago I happened to be in Brussels. A business trip during which I enjoyed lots of walking along the Old town and beautiful parks. To see the blooming cherry trees and pansy flowers, awoke a warm feeling in my heart. To see people toddling in light shoes, wearing hats (if at all) only to give a nice accent to overall image, to breathe the fresh and warm air and to enjoy the cheerful songs of birds... it almost made me cry when I landed back in Riga. I think people were so wrong to title London the city of fog. It's Riga, the queen of fog and grayness, and moisture, and wind and ...
Though this morning there was a bright sun, and the snow which had dropped here during the weekend, was almost gone, leaving some traces only in grass. Still it's not warm, around minus 2 C, but the sun... the sun makes it all much more hopeful. Maybe I am wrong but I think there was a smell of spring in the air. Maybe I am too optimistic, but I left my winter trousers hanging on rack and opted for skirts. And I noticed me smiling when sparrows almost hit into my head during my walk to office. I think those three or four weeks when I felt really down in the dumps should be gone now. It's time to crawl out of winter's depression and jump into salsa dancing, new courses and new job opportunities. Both Thailand, both Los Angeles (a week in early February this year) gave me a lesson and ideas about which I will tell some other time. Now I am going out to face the spring... at least in my heart!