Sunshine Day

"I think I’ll go for a walk outside now, the summer sun’s calling my name-
I hear you now-
I just can’t stay inside all day, I gotta get out, get me some of those rays!
Everybody’s smiling (sunshine day)
Everybody’s laughing (sunshine day)
Everybody seems so happy today-
It’s a sunshine day."

--Brady Bunch, "Sunshine"

It is just gorgeous outside--birds chirping (even the first robins of spring!), bees humming, plants budding, flowers peeping, windchimes singing, children laughing, neighbors waving. We spent several hours outside after church and lunch, cleaning up the garden wall and riding tricycles around. We showed Mama our blooming snowdrops and our emerging crocuses; then altogether we found the tips of our day lilies poking through.

"Good day sunshine

Good day sunshine
Good day sunshine

I need to laugh, and when the sun is out
I've got something I can laugh about
I feel good, in a special way
I'm in love and it's a sunny day "

--Beatles, "Good Day Sunshine"

"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,

and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right"

--Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun"

Mama got out the safety cones and all the big wheels, in addition to the tricycles, creating an obstacle course on the driveway for the kids, who raced up and down it. Bud also had all his drawing tools (in a baggie from church) out on my favorite rock to draw the outside, so I drew so snowdrops for him. Sis helped with some dirt digging. Mama rearranged parts of the garage and delivered tools and such to me for my rosebush pruning and rock wall cleaning.

"Sunshine on my shoulders

makes me happy

Sunshine in my eyes

can make me cry

Sunshine on the water

looks so lovely

Sunshine almost always

makes me high.

If I had a day that I could give to you

I'd give to you a day just like today

If I had a song that I could sing for you

I'd sing a song to make you feel this way."

--John Denver, "Sunshine on My Shoulder"

I'm sure we'll have more frost, maybe even a few more snowstorms. It is only the first week of March after all. But as Sis noted, the ground is finally soft so that she can dig and we could remove our "Let it Snow" sign, which has been frozen in place for a few months now. So regardless of a few more weeks of winter (and local lore says not to plant anything until Mother's Day, which is often the last damaging frost of the region), we can feel "spring bustin' out all over" (to paraphrase from Carousel).

"Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sunshine in
Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sunshine in
Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sun shine in..."

--5th Dimension, "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"

"I'm walking on sunshine , wooah

I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
and don't it feel good!! "

--Katrina and the Waves, "Walking on Sunshine"

And our family's perennial favorite:

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away."

(for more sunshine songs, see here)