Using the list of vocabulary we generated try writing about spring. One condition: write in a negative way about it! For example: "The red-breasted robins outside my window woke me up with their incessant chirping. Maybe I can find some bird poison at Home Depot!" or "The piles of cherry blossoms were slippery and made me fall and hurt my arm." Have fun!
NOTE: Natalia's piece, "An In-Between Time" has been published at The Pearson Buzz.
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My neighbour’s manure stinks. The birds were chirping at 6 a.m. Even the crows were out early, cawing racously while swaying in my fir tree.
Spring? Who needs it!
By 10 some guy starts to mow the grass—on a Sunday! The belching smoke from his badly tuned gas mower fills the clear morning air. Soon enough, he’ll fire up a gas weedeater and fill the air with a heady mix of light oil and partly burned gasoline.
There’s a spring soccer tournament at the park and the dilapitated old ice cream truck is playing the same song over and over and over again.
I think I’ll just duck back inside and wait for the quiet and calm (and less stinky) winter to come back again.
The Irritation of Spring
All plants that start their new buds tell us spring is coming. Some things really annoy people in this season, such as, the pollen and mess from flower blossoms, the noise and dirt from birds, the smell and smoke from manure and barbecue. These irritations can drive you crazy.
Here are some of my criticisms.
“Ar Chu! Ar Chu!” the series of sneezes was not caused by ‘flu but from allergy during the period of flower blossoms. Many flowers have frightened me because of their fluffy pistils, especially those containing obvious big ones, such as poppies, lilies, hibiscus. When they opened their wicked mouths, their evil grins agitated me very much.
Whenever I spotted them, my nerves would be sensitized, then the symptom of consequent sneezes, the running nose, the itching eyes, and even the painful headache would bother me the whole season.
Moreover, the dandelions with their lion faces explode like shooting guns.
“Pow! Pow! Pow!” they not only fire at every second, but they also drift up and down to land wherever they want in order to deploy their next battle. I have to bow to the inevitable and take responsibility for the endless mess at last.
The other trouble was the noisy birds.
“Caw! Caw! Caw!” a group of crows woke me up when I was taking a nap. The deafening uproar disturbed my mood often, especially as the crow’s ugly sound has been considered a bad omen in Chinese folklore. However, their traces spread almost everywhere: parks, beaches, gardens, and even streets.
Birds usually enjoy their life in the resort areas where people like to feed them, so they gather together with various species, such as, geese, seagulls, crows, pigeons, and mallards. I used to walk in the Como Lake Park, but I had to step back to avoid their dirt frequently. Once I changed my walking to the other places, I still faced a challenge.
The other annoyances were the awful odor and smoke.
In order to nourish their gardens, my neighbors put manure or compost in their yard. The smell went through my house, and the smoke of their barbecues was also full in the air. Although I don’t like smoke, the delicious barbecue odors motivated my taste and made my mouth water. As a result, I could hardly open my windows or even go into my garden in spring.
Spring is the sign of irritation.
Spring is coming!
For heaven’s sake, I have to stop crows digging worms under the grass in my yard. Last spring, they entirely messed up my front and back yards. It cost me 125 bags of top soil, ten-kg of new seed, 60-kg of fertilizer and ten days ‘labour work. What can I do for the loss? I can’t blame crows because they lost main source of food due to City’s change of garbage system. Besides, worms are no good for the grass; they eat young root of spring grass. May be I should claim the loss to my house insurance company as a natural disaster. Oh, I hate spring.
Damn it! The branches of a wisteria are creeping along my bath room wall, telling me that it is the time to trim them off. Last time, it took a day’s work. I fell off from a step ladder and twisted my ankle. I have two old wisterias and those flowers produce very strong smell like a perfume. It used to make me a honey but I am too old for that now. One of these days, I will trim them off; two inches above the grand. Oh, I hate spring.
By gosh! My neighbour is using his gas lawnmower again. It is third time in this year. I don’t touch mine yet. The sound and smell of gas are surely irritating my feeling. My wife will say some sarcastic wards to me for sure. Is he going to use fertilizer this time? If so, he is a crazy because the more he uses it, the more he has to cut the lawn many times. It is waste of time and money. Once I read in a paper that all the money we spend for lawn fertilizer in North America, it could save all people who are perishing with hunger in whole world. Should I tell my neighbour that? No, it isn’t my business. Oh, I hate spring.
Shoot! The thwack of golf balls at the driving range are getting louder and louder. It is carrying a message that the green fee is going up from winter rate to summer one; double it. The range and golf course will be crowded with golfers and it makes me difficult to reserve a good tee off time on a certain day. Why so many people want play golf? Golf is a stupid game; you are chasing two inches ball for five hours and you have to pay for that 70 bucks! In winter time, I can play any day (whenever weather permitting), any time under 30 dollar. Oh well, it is the rule of supply and demand. Oh, I hate spring.
First draft 452 words
In-Between Time
I feel frustrated in this in-between time when spring fights with winter for the rights to come.
Every year, while watching the dramatic battle between the two seasons, I feel very sorry for the beauty of the first fragile spring flowers bravely coming from the ground, which are certainly not welcomed by the unfriendly weather.
The beautiful huge purple buds of Magnolia blossom on still leafless branches as a rule appear during cold and rainy weather which is so common to west coast. The fragile flowers are often severely bitten by rains and winds that rip them down. I hate that rain and wind which killed my beauty! I haven’t taken a decent picture yet! After the storm, silky petals and flowers make a colourful carpet on the green grass around the trees. I carefully gather still alive, wet flowers, bring them home and arrange them in a big bowl filled with water. Here, on my table, they can live a little longer.
The more trees blossom, the more victims I try to save. My next pick-up is a set of cherry and plum tree blossoms. There are many streets in New Westminster that are filled with blossoming trees. It is bittersweet to watch the result of a stormy night – all ground and cars are covered by the most beautiful garbage I have ever seen – white and pink petals. They are pretty, but dangerously slippery for the pedestrians. They might also flow with the water and block the sewage ducts.
Very soon, spring will win the battle and warm, sunny weather will take over. More flowers will appear in the gardens and parks, cheering us up. Unfortunately, my beloved blossoming season is a danger for my good friend who is allergic to the most of fragrant flowers. Enjoying the season, I can’t forget that many people suffer from it.
As it happens in our life, even good things have their worst sides. Even spring, the season of new life, might make somebody unhappy.
I've published Natalia's piece as it was well edited and ready (and spring "began" yesterday!) Suzanne and Masaru's pieces need a bit more polishing. We might publish one or two more.
A Torment Spring
people like spring, and the spring makes them high. however, not all Spring is such bright and worthy to recollect. The spring score years ago was one of the unbearable to recall to me.
The warm sunshine already painted the willows on the bank of moat tender green. The golden flowers of winter jasmine glistened among the withered bushes. A beautiful spring was here again in my home town. But I was in awful hurry on my way to the hospital; my wife was bad ill.
The cuckoo echoed the valley and the field here and there. The swallows returned from the south and were busy to repair their old neats. The fragrance of lilac assailed my nose informing me the spring is very much in the air. But I was in no mood for appreciating these scenes of the spring, for I had to get the necessary medicine for her in the way "entering by the back door"
The cuckoo sound got far and rare, and the spring thunder rumbled at the remote places. The bright spring of this year had passed unconsciously.... However, the thunder still roiled on in my heart , for her disease was not on the mend.
I was insensitive in such a season, having no feeling about it totally. What a torment spring!
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