Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day 

from me to you, borrowed from a penny postcard from the early 1900's:

Muse bid the morn awake
Sad winter now declines

I'm needing a muse about now, so if Valentine's Day awakens it, all the better since there's nothing like starting with Valentine inspired love. 

This winter has found me busy at most everything except writing for myself. That will come I have no doubt. Sad winter now declines, according to this year's Groundhog Day prediction, and I'm hoping for an early spring to start my forays into the western North Carolina mountains. Spring comes late there in the deep hidden coves where the ice covered back roads between me and my interview destinations make driving (for this foothill girl) impossible.

Perhaps Valentine's Day has been lost in the mix this year. February has been full of minor celebrations starting with Groundhog Day, through the much anticipated fiftieth Superbowl, then Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, President's Day, and the always anticipated Snow Days when the world comes to a halt and we breathe. And then we get tired of snow and wonder if spring will ever come. We all need a penny post card like this one to remind us, as Shelley posed in Ode to the West Wind, "O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind."

We celebrate well. This February we've looked for inspiration, and for distraction, and it's only half over. We need the happiness of red hearts and chocolate and candy and the penny post cards that are now four dollars to lift our spirits in the dreary winter. Valentine's Day can't be forgotten.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen