So finally the snowdrop army has risen in full number from its subterranean slumber to occupy its rightful place in the backyard, and just in time, too, as spring arrives in just six short days at 11:33 am.  Whew!  Talk about the nick of time! 

If the military imagery bothers you, let me suggest Wm Wordsworth’s Ode to a Daffodil, which is not about snowdrops or about the backyard, either, but is also much more appropriately worshipful about the Glories of Nature and things like that, and of course the man’s rhapsodic abilities are second to none.  He also lived in a different time than now, when it seems military imagery is all the rage. 

Let’s hope that all changes sooner than later, though even Wordsworth lived in the time of the Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812 and the War of the Oranges, just for starters.  William died in 1850, just missing the Crimean War that started three years later (not to be confused with the Crimean War of 2014).  So it goes, same with the Glories of Nature which shall endure long after our species has stopped its aggressions altogether.And if some snowstorm has the audacity to chill the daffodils when they finally arrive, you’ll see pictures of that here, but let’s hope not, though the visuals would undoubtedly be most lovely.    

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