Emerging into Imbolc

For the past week, the Lair has been iced and snowed in thanks to a rather freak Arctic "blast" of a storm.  1" of solid ice descended on us on Tuesday followed by 6" of snow on Friday...and temperatures never rose above 28 degrees 'til Saturday afternoon.  The "first signs" of Spring--or at least the lessening of Winter's grip--promised in Imbolc never really seemed to appear to us here in the "frozen tundra" of north Texas.

At least, the non-appearance of Imbolc is what it seemed on the surface.  Amid the snows and ice, I noted the return of the early Spring songbirds to the Lair's gardens.  The gardens themselves are showing the faintest hints of buds at the ends of the branches of the pear and fig...of random sunny-yellow dandelions in the all-but-dead lawns...of tiny red leaves (new growth) on the numerous roses.  Under the thick ice of the Pond, the fish have formed a "nest" of sorts. 

The skies are no longer the icy blues of deep Winter;  rather, the warming blue of the rising season has begun to colour the noon sky.  Dawn in all her blushing girlhood arrives earlier each morning.  The evening sky is just a wee bit more rosy-lilac at the gloaming.  Spring is slow to arrive, but arrive She is.  The Maiden is softly and hesitatingly returning.

So, as all of you wrap yourselves against the chill winds of Winter's final onslaught (as we at the Lair are doing) and grasp that warm and bracing cup of hot tea sweetened by the final oozings of the Summer bees' handiwork, embrace the knowledge that the sun WILL shine again, the lawns WILL green again, and She is watching patiently in preparation for her glorious entrance at Oestara.

In the Softness of the frosty Moonlight...