Springing Time

Ah, blue skies and cool breezes. Spring! I am so filled with motivation this time of year. Perhaps it has something to do with the coming of the summer holidays – Christmas and New Years and so on – and the general good feeling of that time of year. The New Year period always makes me want to start new projects. But it’s also an easy-going time of year, a time most people spend lying in the sun with an alcoholic beverage.

 

For me, spring is a confusing time, a time of emotional conflict. I like the rich colours, the scents, the air, but I hate the brightness and the heat. In early spring I tend to sulk, knowing blessed winter is gone, and the overbearing death-gaze of the summer day-star is on the distant horizon. Woe! says I. But once spring gets going, with its green and blossoms and tui in the kowhai tree, I feel better about the whole endeavour. If I’m in a nice breeze and out of the sun, I can stay quite content until January, when things become quite oppressive and I hide until mid-autumn.

 

Today I woke at 9am – early for me – and after my coffee was filled with motivation to do things. Unfortunately, NaNoWriMo hasn’t started yet, and it doesn’t feel right to get to work in advance. I’m working with a pre-existing manuscript this year, but as it’s only about 5,000 words long, that doesn’t bother me much; working on it now, when there’s only six days to go until kick-off, takes some of the fun of anticipation out of it.

 

I like that NaNo falls in the late spring/early summer. I know in the northern hemisphere, people like to snuggle in with a hot drink and a scarf and work while the rain is beating against the windows, but I think this time of year as its own charms, with everything around one full of the joys of spring, everyone looking ahead to their summer hols not so very far away. The summer lovers are ecstatic with the change in seasons, and those of us who hate the hot are still cool enough in the shade to feel comfortable. It’s a good time of year, and I’m alive with l’esprit du printemps.

2 thoughts to “Springing Time”

  1. Greetings from nanowrimo. Autumn is an odd time for me. The sun goes down so fast where I live, and before nanowrimo is out, I shall say goodbye to it altogether, at least until January (or until I fly South). It’s a good time to write.

    1. I’m actually really envious. I’d like to spend a year very far north, where the sun disappears in winter and never leaves in summer. It sounds absolutely spectacular.

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