I've been feeling achy and sore throaty all week and have drooped around the house the last couple of days feeling pretty blah.  I think Lady Mary has had enough of my complaining...

My winter poem yesterday was a little bleak (it matched my mood) so I thought today I should remind all of us struggling with yet another snowstorm (three more inches today, oh yay!) that January is almost over and spring will come.  Eventually.  Perhaps.  Maybe.  We'll see...

In the meantime, here is a lovely poem by Claude McKay, appropriately titled After the Winter.  Because right now, we need to believe there is an "after"!  And since I had time on my hands while home sick I set myself a challenge of trying to tell the poem through my own pictures.  I hope you enjoy it!

And against the morning’s white

The shivering birds beneath the eaves

Have sheltered for the night,

Where bamboos spire the shafted grove

And wide-mouthed orchids smile.

And we will build a cottage there

     Beside an open glade,

With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,

Have a day filled with love and warmth!