First day,

I felt the warm sun on my face,

Didn’t have to wear a overcoat,

Heard more ‘g’d mornings’ than I had been accustomed to,

Saw that the flower buds were peaking, readying to flower ‘n’ bloom,

Heard the birdsong of the morning more vividly than ever,

Noticed that I could watch the female form walk in various stages of undress, all day long;

Had to remind myself to act my age and not stare, more than a handful of times;

Spring does literally put a spring in everyone’s step;

Absence, obviously, makes the heart grown fonder;

And now that the sun has returned home from its winter wars in the south (as it usually does this time of the year),

We have more than the solitary letters home that kept our spirits up through the long winter months;

The northern hemisphere is about to turn en mass into a cult of sun worshippers,

For the next five months at least, before this faithful soldier goes off to war yet again,

When we’ll have only it’s irregular letters to keep us company over the cold winter months once more;

So, enjoy the view while you can,

Get out there:

Play, be merry, and catch-up on all the to-dos;

For everything is temporary,

And in these unpredictably inclement times (termed variously, as el nino, climate change, et al),

You never know if and when the sun may be recalled to the war front early.