Bernadette Benda

So I um…took a hiatus last week. Whoopsies. Being now entirely “self-employed” I’ve gotten rather busy and a lot time I look at my schedule for the day and it’s either “write a blog or edit my novel” and editing my novel wins every time. Sorry fellas.

BUT, to remedy this, I’m going to start writing blogs on the weekends (this is entirely useless information to all you readers, as for all you know I already was writing my blogs on the weekends. But typing it out and putting it out there in the “world” makes it official, I guess).

But anyway. Let’s dive into todays “blog”.

Book quotes that make you think of spring. (Or….make me think of spring or just warm weather in general.)

We are nearing the official start of spring (I would also like to say that I’m writing this on March 13th, the Dreadful Day of Lockdown 2020. Ugh, ugh, ugh. I would really not like to look back at the past year and think important things and reflect on virtual stuff and vaccines and what not. At this point, I don’t want to engage in any conversation that involves the word “Covid” or “vaccine”). I am personally near jumping for joy at the warmer weather, though I know it is still quite likely that it will snow in April.

But either way, things are getting warmer, and the days are getting longer. And so here are some book quotes about spring. Cool beans. Here we go.

~~~~~~

Then she took Gerda out into the flower-garden. How fragrant and lovely it was! Every imaginable flower, and those of every season, too, stood here in perfect bloom; no picture-book could be more richly or finely colored.
Gerda jumped for joy, and played till the sun went down behind the tall cherry-trees; then she was laid in a beautiful bed with red silk pillows embroidered with violets. She slept and dreamed as gloriously as only a queen can do on her wedding-day.

~ The Snow Queen, Hans Christen Anderson

He nodded. “You had pink flowers in your hair,” he said.

She nodded. “Beach roses. It was midsummer.”

“And bare feet.”

“Yours were bare too. It was a warm day.”

“Aye. The grass was warm and damp.”

~ Son, Lois Lowry (ok this about summer but whatever)

“How do I feel?” he cried. “Well, I don’t know how to say it. I feel – I feel” – he waved his arms in the air – “I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the song I have ever heard!”

~ The Return of the King, J.R.R Tolkien

The fruit was so plentiful that young hobbits very nearly bathed in strawberries and cream; and later they sat on the lawns under the plum-trees and ate, until they had made piles of stone like small pyramids or the heaped skulls of a conqueror, and then they moved on. And no one was ill, and everyone was pleased, except those that had to mow the grass.

~ The Return of the King, J.R.R Tolkien

Farnon was an unorthodox driver. Apparently captivated by the scene, he drove slowly down the hill, elbows resting on the wheel, his chin cupped in his hands. At the bottom of the hill he came out of his reverie and spurted to seventy miles an hour. The old car rocked crazily along the narrow road and my movable seat slewed from side to side as I jammed my feet against the floorboards.
Then he slammed on the brakes, pointed out some pedigree Shorthorns in a field and jolted away again. He never looked at the road in front; all his attention was on the countryside around and behind him. It was the last bit that worried me, because he spent a lot of time driving fast and looking over his shoulder at the same time.

~ All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (this book just makes me think of spring in general, and also we just started watching the new series and it’s soooo good)

In the summer dusk, a wild panorama of tumbling fells and peaks rolled away and lost itself in the crimson and gold ribbons of the western sky. To the east, a black mountain overhung us, menacing in it naked bulk. Huge, square-cut boulders littered the lowers slopes.

~ All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (again a summer quote. Sorry I couldn’t pass up that glorious description.)

To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick, or any money, or anything that he usually took with him when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf’s hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the lane, past the great Mill, across the Water and then on for a mile or more.

~ The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.

~ The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien (no I’m not sorry for the bombardment of Tolkien quotes)

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

~ The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
~Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

~ Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

~~~~~~~~

There you have it. *slow claps*

(It’s been a weird week, I just want you all to know. I think I strained my shoulder or something and taxes taxes taxes taxes GAHHHH)

(oh and uh, happy St. Patrick’s Day. Plant some peas)

Do have any favorite quotes about spring? What books make you think of spring? What books would you bring on a warm, spring picnic??