Lions and lambs

So I can't access my Facebook account right now - site maintenance - and ... um ... it's actually making me kinda anxious -- which in turn is making me kinda anxious about my mental stability. I'm mostly joking - mostly. It reminds me of being back at Queen's and using that ancient email system - I think it was run from the DOS shell - it regularly crashed and I couldn't check my emails which were rapidly becoming the only way to communicate - it was free and most everything else, as my tender young self was beginning to realise, was not.

I've just had a kind of memory flash: I am walking beside the Stauffer library towards the entrance (Stauffer's tomb), and the JDUC is on my left. It must be early spring - later than now - because the sun is shining and I can smell lunch from the Skylight cafeteria. I can picture perfectly the entrance foyer at Stauffer - granite and rich, red wood and steel - there are six email PCs to the right and always a queue for them. It's funny but I've never considered that there was no 'PC suite' in the library - and only about 6 catalogue/email PCs per floor. I loved spring in Kingston.

As I do here - English springs come early - there is an apple tree on the grounds of the mosque next to us already in bloom; crocuses and daffodils are up in Hyde Park. I can't tell if March came in like a lion or a lamb though - last night was a most terrific storm with lashing rain and gusts so strong that walking was like swimming against the current of a river in full spate. The sound of the wind in the trees in Hyde Park was almost deafening - I love that sound. This morning, however, the sun was shining, the air is mild - and I'm waiting for the change. This is Yorkshire; if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes - if you do like the weather, don't get comfy - and always pack yer brolly.

Luckily we spent the evening listening to the rain and wind while snug and warm, discussing garden plans with our fellow allotment-holders - nothing better for waiting out a storm.