sunsets | Grass Oil by Molly Field

I saw my first bumblebee of 2014 this morning.

I will try to avoid writing at length about the atypically cold and severe weather we experienced this past winter because it’s not only pointless, I want it to be a distant memory. I won’t mention that only 10 days ago it snowed.

Did I say that?

Here’s what I love about spring:

sunsets. sure, you can see them in winter; but you can’t stand and look at them for too long in the winter. it’s COLD! and usually at sunset time, you’re fixing to leave for home or you’ve just had lunch.

kids getting out! marauding youth. these kids hadn’t been on a mob board run in months.

daffodils, tulips, bulbs -- of all variety, forcing their way through dead oak leaves: spearing a hole in the leave and pushing through anyway. if they can do this year after year after year ... after sleeping for months, what's to stop us from making our way too? channel your inner daffodil: LIVE!

daffodils, tulips, bulbs — of all variety, their leaves forcing their way through dead oak leaves: spearing a hole in the leaves and pushing through anyway. if they can do this year after year after year … after sleeping for months in the frozen ground, what’s to stop us from making our way too? channel your inner daffodil: LIVE!

I adore winter. It lets us rest and gear up for spring. I’m so glad winter is over and that spring is finally here.

Thank you.

Sunsets are usually considered the day’s yawn; power on its way out; a signal that the day is ending and it’s time for all God’s creatures to rest in their collective glowing embers.

This autumn’s sunsets have been particularly fantastic. My kids and I can’t remember a time in recent years when they’ve been more spectacular.

I’m always in awe of the sun’s ability at sunsets to beam through space and find a hole in a patch of leaves to brighten something eight minutes away in my backyard.

Here, the trees don’t look like they’re ready to settle in for the night; they look like they’re just getting started.

I’ve been preparing the house for my incoming family for Thanksgiving which has required me to be holed up inside all day.

My oldest son, who is 15, came down to the basement to fetch me, “Mom, I wanted to call you up to see the sunset. It’s like the trees are on fire.” He knows me so well. They all do, but he seems to have a sense of my abiding love for nature.

Eventide: my favorite time of day. When the faeries come out and magical things happen.

Thank you.