outside

for houston, texas, a city often enough known to have hot weather on christmas, it has been an unusually cold and long winter. it snowed (and stuck!) on december 8th and temperatures hovered around the teens and twenties for about a week. as a result my garden currently looks like armageddon, though i am seriously hoping for a miraculous resurrection.
alas, it is now march, and we are having a month of near perfect weather thus far. i love march for many reasons - my birthday, my niece's birthday, several dear friends' birthdays, daylight savings time, blooms, dresses, the list goes on.  mostly i love the feeling of the sun warm on my face and neck and breeze lightly ruffling my hair. perfect in between hot and cold temperature where long sleeves is not uncomfortable and tank tops feel refreshing. i love my dogs yapping at everything that moves and bailey, the oldest one, basking in the sun til i literally have to drag him by the collar inside. when i do that, he rolls onto his back and goes limp. message to his person: i am just fine right here, and i plan on staying just fine right here. i love families out in public parks and the general sense of glee and togetherness warm weather seems to bring. i've long thought that maybe one reason people are outwardly very friendly in the south is because we have so many days of warmth that keep our heads up and out of the isolated dark space buried inside winter coats.
my husband has this week off, and we've taken our 6 month old to a new place every day. today is was the zoo. though he can't really name or engage with animals, he did enjoy pulling the goat's ears at the petting zoo. the goat was remarkably patient. but he slept through the most exciting part for me - when the elephants decided to go for a swim. 3 multi ton elephants in a pool about 15 yards in diameter...wow.  you see, since i was small i have had a fascination with elephants. so much so that i used to say when i grew up i wanted to be one. my genetics make that impossible, so when i got out of college, the first rendition of my elephant metamorphosis was 2 one ton printing presses the size of small elephants named tembo studio. tembo = elephant in swahili. in one way i became the elephant i dreamt of as a child. it was hard today not to elbow my way in front of squealing kids and indifferent adults. it's probably a mortal sin to step on and over 5 year olds giddy with excitement over one of the zoo animals actually moving, so i willed myself to stay in the second row of people...but i did manage to worm my arm over the heads of little people to take some photos.

one of the elephants, shanti, is expecting any day now, and if you've never seen a baby elephant GO SOON. they bounce in the most delightfully skittish way. shanti is also having a baby shower to which you can donate by clicking here. it's difficult to find tutus in elephant sizes though...

i did a collage in my journal as a tribute to outside. though caleb, josh, and i all have runny noses and itchy throats due to the trees' bursting forth with chartreuse blooms (all eager to ask each other about their winters i am sure), i am 100% ready to embrace the spring and wear my long dormant sundresses. yikes. haven't worn them since before pregnancy. gotta put the flounce back in those guys. enjoy spring! and go outside as much as you can.