its still snowing here, off and on from day to day, but its beginning to seem like the frozen grip of our icy seasonal temperatures is finally starting to ease and the mounds of snow are now melting...thankfully. i love where i live, partly because i can enjoy the transformation that occurs with each change of season, but winter is the only one that cannot seem to pass quickly enough for me or my spirit!
i am heartened that spring is just a mere twenty days away...but it also helps to find little ways to help alleviate the spring fever that sets in right about this time each year. for instance, i splurge a little more often (if i can get away with it) on fresh flowers or plants to place about the house. this weekend, my wegman's had the most beautifully colored bunches of fresh Stock (Matthiolo incana) flowers. i chose the pale blushy pink ones that you see above, and gathered them up with some delicate baby's breath. they've been placed on the coffee table in the family room, and you can smell their romantic fragrance every time you walk into the room...(sigh). it really does help to lift one's mood, to bend over and place your nose amongst such delicately perfumed blooms. i mean, how can you not help but smile?
you know what else helps even the most horrible cases of spring fever? getting out of town! and this lucky girl gets to go here in just a few short weeks:
san franciso is one of my favorite cities to be in...its just so groovy and laidback, and it totally appeals to the hippy in me (obviously). so come late april, i'll be back there, touring Napa wineries, riding trolley cars, strolling the haight, climbing mt. tamalpais, and chilling at the wave organ. there are a ton of 'need to see' places on my san francisco wish list, but i'm really looking for the unique, out of the way, only the locals and 'those in the know would know about' places...are there tiny little shops full of dresdens and millinery someplace nearby? quiet little boutiques brimming with crafting treasures tucked into those hills? perhaps a forgotten little antique place full of old photos and books near chinatown?
i'm looking for input folks! if you love san francisco as much as i, i would love to hear your favorite places to see, eat, shop, enjoy...leave me a comment below and help a girl out! and, try to remember that all winters end, no matter how cold and icy!
