A Pause on the Way to Spring

There was a forecast of a possibility of snow flurries for the morning of Friday the 13th, and sure enough, we had snow with a bit of accumulation, enough to coat everything with some decorative white icing. It was a funny snow, because unlike the silent heavy snows of winter where all you hear sometimes is the faint hiss of the snow failing and the distant sounds of shoveling or tires whirring in the snow, this was a noisy snow...the birds didn't seem to miss a beat in their spring singing. The cardinals and tufted titmice were especially loud but i also heard robins, grackles, wrens, bluebirds, and white throated sparrows when i went out to brush the snow off my vehicle.
Here's the first of my early daffodils: And some beautiful crocuses in the lawn (i think the squirrels brought these):

My poor hardy pansies survived the winter, just started to bloom, and now their pretty flower faces are covered with snow:

Here's the forsythia, also just starting to bloom:


By the time our lunch n' learn group got together at 11:30, all the snow was gone. The lunch n' learn gang met at Ruby Tuesday's this time. It worked out that all 12 of us could sit at a couple of tables pushed together, but it was really hard to hear from one end of the table to the other. Rabbi Rose asked us each to bring in a few photos that were at least 10 years old of ourselves. We passed them around, and it was a great conversation starter!

Not all the women knew each other before this, so sharing the pictures really enabled us to learn more about each other in a hurry. One of our members won a prize in a biblical literary magazine and we were going to discuss her story, a unique way of looking at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah from the point of view of Lot's wife. However, the acoustics in the restaurant were really challenging and we weren't able to hear each other well. In fact, after i left to go back to work, it was generally agreed that we would have to do the "learn" component in some other setting, and just keep this as a social group that gets together for lunch. (This was only our third meeting so the group is still in its infancy.)