Rabbit, rabbit

As today is the first of March, it is an especially good time to start the month by saying "Rabbit, rabbit!" which is supposed to be a lucky thing to do. Here is a link to an article from wikippedia explaining the originsof the superstition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_rabbit

March is my favorite time of year, and I consider the rabbit a kind of personal totem. My birthday is in March, which is the month when hares go mad, and my chinese astrological sign is the wood rabbit. The spring when my husband and I were planning to elope, we kept seeing rabbits in our yard, which felt like a lucky sign. When we were finally on our honeymoon, camping at Huntington Beach state park, we kept seeing rabbits around our campsite. It felt like they were there wishing us good fortune! I love this month more than any other, true March hare that I am :)

March has come in like a lamb this year, with warm, sunny, windy days. The earliest blooming trees look like giant snowballs in my neighborhood. Our little winding  streets are flanked with ornamental pears boasting masses of white flowers. Here and there, closer to the ground, there are splashes of  vivid yellow--daffodils and forsythia--and delicate pink and lavender--tulip magnolias, hyacinths--and more white flowers, like narcissus. Our blueberry bushes and my potted pomegranate have red leaf buds just appearing. It is beautiful outside every day, and warm, at least 70-75F for a week now. We're probably going to have another cold snap or two, since our average last frost date is around the first week in April, but for now things are really nice!

Yesterday, on my first day of work at the new job, I got up extra early and went walking with Ginger. We watched the sun come up with gorgeous pastel colors in the east, and there was a waning crescent moon racing towards it. It glowed a pearly pink color in the early dawn light and there was a slight misty fog on the streets. Everything looked almost eerie...the pink sky, glowing crescent moon, the white balloons of pear blossom suspended just off the ground..like so many hot air balloons, waiting to lift off into the sky. The birds were singing and calling to each other, and the squirrels were acting crazy and hyperactive...lovesick, I imagine....and everything smelled like fresh green things and the rain that had fallen the night before. It was a nice way to start my first day of work, and helped relieve some of the nervousness I felt when I first woke up. The exercise helped, too!

Today I only went in for a few hours, so I have the afternoon to enjoy. The weather is so beautiful again that I'm itching to get outside and work on my herb garden. It seems like a good way to celebrate the start of March, and a good new job! Rabbits, rabbits!