Spring is in the air!

It's still only August, and the Winter this year has been decidedly cold.  And wet!    Plenty of frosts and fogs and even snow further up in the hills.

The past couple of days though we've had lovely sunshine during the daytime hours.   Suddenly things are changing.   This morning as I drove to the shops I noticed that the cherry-plum trees (that are favoured over here as avenue trees) are already breaking out into blossom.  At the same time many of the early flowering rhododendrons are breaking bud.  One of the loveliest sights however are the magnolia trees, massively covered in white and pink blooms.   Two days ago the trees were bare - yet today they are flaunting their beauty. They remind me of beautiful women.

You know, so many women these days seem to be unaware of their attractiveness.     As I enjoyed a cup of coffee at the local cafe this morning I watched as women walked past and rode the escalators to the shops.  So many of them looked as though they'd slept in their clothes or else thrown on anything they could find.  Why is this I wonder?  It's not as though women are expected to "dress up" merely to go shopping or to check the post, but what has happened to carefully choosing what one wears each and every day?

I meet a lot of women who have no restrictions on their spending budget;  I meet as many who live on tightly controlled budgets and who in fact hardly have any spending money to themselves from one year to another.  Yet both lots of women can, and do, dress smartly.   Our local Op shops have recently been in the news as having gained a reputation for providing top quality clothing, some of it designer labels, and women everywhere are taking advantage of these garments.  All at affordable prices.   It's one way of increasing the wardrobe at little cost.  

So it saddens me to see women of all ages who seem to take little or no care in what they're wearing.  Even if their wardrobe is somewhat bare, that's no excuse for women (especially women of size) to go around with clothing that quite obviously needs a good wash.   Have they given up?  

Let's take note of the flowers in our garden.   They insist that the world sees them as beautiful regardless of their size or age.   If only we could do the same as it relates to ouselves.