Simply springtime

It is near indescribable from me, a time I struggle for adequate words to explain how the emotion of spring affects me. Perhaps, it is that as I grow older (and slower) I cherish this bounty time all the more, especially when I see the awfulness that is occurring, naturally, in the world, let alone the dreads that we do to our own kind let alone the kindly Earth. This past winter, still snipes away ignoring the imposition of the calendar's measure, though with less malignancy. Yet, this year, I have felt those months acutely. It is of course that I am changing, certainly physically as is the normal writ of being human but emotionally as well I believe. That moody rage of intemperate youth has long gone and my days are more tempered. Again, this is not uncommon in the compass of a life journey; it is by most examinations a natural progression, with emphasis on progression. In an ideal existence, you would have the wiser, patient outlook of middle age rendered well by life experience, into the body of youthful exuberance and daredevil.

Nonetheless, irrespective of the domicile of age, there is one thing that has never diminished since my childhood - curiosity. Of the world about me and all its complexities and strictures. This afternoon was no exception. I was heading off to watch my local Aussie Rules football team, Albion, play in its first Grand Final in many years, when I came across an early season flowering pink/mauve bottlebrush. Lured by the flower and its delicate perfume, I noticed some clearly excited insects savouring its generous nectar. I fired off plenty of photos and this single shot worked, helped by a dollop of post processing.

In this unfussed photo is captured the ecstasy of spring. It is not a grand landscape or a delicate portrait. It is not necessarily a photo that will bring you to tears, though it did for me because it is of life itself. I literally tingled all over, thrilled at this essay from the unfolding season.

Too, Albion won the Grand Final defeating the more fancied Spotswood. The premiership being its first since 1994 and I was delighted for the players, coaches, club stalwarts and enthusiastic long time supporters who have earnt their prize. Needleless to say, the clubrooms not far from my home are a rockin' and a jivin' place this evening. I even partook of an ale or two myself with a couple of my old school-years chums, with us revelling in the current triumph and embossing our very modest football deeds played when we were much, much younger and more supple.

It is shaping up to be a springtime for the ages.