spring has sprung

Perhaps we in the Czech Republic will finally be able to put away all our talk about what a strange and warm, snowless winter this has been. Perhaps, now that the trees and bushes have all budded and blossomed, now that the Easter markets have come and are about to be gone, now that the daylight hours are stretching closer and closer to 8pm and soon will overtake even that evening hour, perhaps now we can say that Spring is officially here.

You may feel like pointing out that the calendar beat me to it almost three weeks ago and so did a groundhog in Pennsylvania. But we who've spent a few trips round the sun in the Czech Republic tend to be more hesitant. We're still a month before those three days in early May that Czechs call "the three frozen men," when traditionally the last snows may fall. But I think I'll shed my hesitations this year along with my long-since-closeted winter coat. Spring is here. Let there be claritin!

What you'll find in this post and also the next three (which have all been put up this afternoon) are some of our early Spring pcitures and wanderings. We've been outside enjoying a warm sun and lots of new green everywhere, and haven't been keeping this page so up-to-date. Like we said in our recent newsletter, Chrissy's former teammate Courtney arrived last Friday for a visit and is staying with us until Saturday. It's been great re-connecting wit her and enjoying her enjoy so many things and people she hasn't seen for almost a year now. God has been good with opening bright memories and, we pray, making new ones for Courtney, her friends and students, and us, too---who get to share them together and every night in Courtney's exuberant storytelling.

We hope you enjoy the pictures and the stories from these four posts. Ahoj!

Pictured: (1) Chrissy sports the shades on a walk through historic Prague, (2) the forsythia bushes around our apartment building are in full bloom, (3) and so are the blossoms in front of the Veltrussy cheateau, where Joel recently visited with some fellow ESIers