From Winter Round to Spring

"'Round and 'round the seasons are turning,

Spring to summer, fall to winter,

and from winter round to spring,

round to spring,

round to spring..." 

Hullo dear friends, spring is beginning to spring, indeed! The sun is out, the daffodils are out, the fish are out in the pond (and so too, unfortunately is the pond scum), and the air is warm. The light has changed, it's brighter much later now, which is lovely, and that also means some new pictures!! 

from shortly after I came back from (not so) Spring Break.

'Tis Spring now, methinks!

my rose bush is apparently very confused about seasons...

my former roommate brought me a daffodil when I was sick! :D

Unfortunately I'm still a bit sick, but have been to the doctors today (my first time going to a new doctor completely by myself and filling a prescription...*gulp* which was an experience...)

Today (Saturday) was a GORGEOUS day, the sun was out, and it was a wonderfully balmy afternoon. Some friends and I studied together, outside, for some of it, and I've been reading books on Beowulf all day, which if I wasn't so strapped for time, would have been idyllic.

I'm giving a presentation on the dating of Beowulf, which is a bit intimidating, but hopefully will go well. So far, I've read The Audience of Beowulf by Dorothy Whitelock, and the bit in R.W. Chambers' Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn and am currently slogging my way through the part of the Introduction to Klaber's Beowulf that deals with dates. (Might I add, a bit proudly too, that I read all of that today!) Then I just have to read Tolkien's essay and the collection of essays on the dating of Beowulf edited by Colin Chase. All very interesting. And I understand most of it, except when they go into great detail about the linguistics of it all, in which case I feel rather dull and stupid for not understanding what they're saying.

I'm also starting to feel the beginnings of a horrible conviction that I should probably learn German before this is all said and done... (the horror comes from the fact that I'm dreadful at language, not because I don't like German, on the contrary, I like German very much.) I wish I was like some people I know, and could pick up languages like a sponge... cause I'd like to learn Finnish and Welsh too. XD Oh... and Gaelic...

Speaking of German, I'm learning a new song in German for voice lessons, and it's quite pretty! It is called "Lachen Und Weinen" and is by Schubert, whose work I have long admired and never sung. Here it is sung by Lucia Popp, a wonderful Soprano who I will sound NOTHING like, sadly.

Anyway, I must return to the land of Anglo-Saxon poetry. I am becoming more and more convinced about the whole early dating of Beowulf thing... That and Tolkien said so... XD that's mostly a joke...mostly...

Ta ta!