When dusk falls at the streets

I think I’ve elaborated quite some times on this blog on my routine drives of the little Misses of the pond to their afternoon activities; It’s actually three times per week, three afternoons, from 6:30 to 9:30. Three whole hours, meaning enough time for them to do all their music and ballet classes, but also for me, to walk around on my own, inbetween my Pilates class 😉

Yesterday, one such afternoon, after leaving the girls, I walked around the streets of our neighborhood center, just as dusk was falling. Do you know the feeling when dusk falls during spring days, just before daylight saving time settles in? Ah, I’m sure you know, regardless of which spot of the globe you live in. It’s this sweet and calm and strong and young feeling, when you see the sky turning from blue to black, when the shops put the pastel coloured clothes and accessories on their windows and people start sitting outside for a coffee and the cars have open windows and the city smells just right.

I walked around quite some time, taking pictures with my cell phone, plain pictures of the streets and the sky and the church and the shop windows. There was little traffic and few people on the streets, as most of the shops were closed, which was good for me; I always feel embarrassed to take pictures when others are staring at me 😉

Ah, the colour of the sky! That’s the main promise of spring, along with the smell of the air, this fresh, crisp smell that opens the memory window to the summer that’s coming.

And my favourite flower shop, the one that I’ve photographed before and shared it here with you, was standing there, with its pots and flowers under the electric lights, not as strikingly beautiful as during mornings, but still a great pleasure for the eyes.

The main road of our place has small arcades and you have to enter such in order to discover what’s in their end; something like the end of a rainbow I guess! Right there, in one of them, stands my favourite bookstore, with a coffee corner on its ground floor. In this store I spend hours upon hours very often, browsing through modern literature, poetry and art books, buying gifts or just smelling the fresh paper of new books, a smell that never seizes to charm me.

And I didn’t lose the chance to take a look at what the fashion side of the town had to offer. Such bright colours on clothes that are most probably suitable for the little Misses and not for me, but that’s no reason for not looking at them. And the first swimming suits of the season have made their appearance. I’ve walked into a lingerie shop to buy some tights for little Miss no 1 and the sweet girl there asked me whether I’d like to also check the new bikinis… I’ve told her that we first need to take our jackets off, before taking this big step and we both laughed!

Even the patisserie stores have put forward their spring stuff; marzipan little fruit and chocolate smiling faces and buckets full of ice cream and also brioches, traditional Easter sweet at our place..

and Easter chocolate eggs, can you spot them above the ice creams? Yep, Easter is approching quickly (which reminds me that I need to start crafting a couple of bunny beauties, needn’t I?)

My walk finished easily with a hot cappuccino (decaf, as it was already past seven..) at my favourite coffee place; hidden in the end of yet another arcade, a big place with removable roof top (!) which was still half open when I entered.

With bright red chairs, vintage armchairs spread around, a big wooden table in the middle and nice music, it’s always a pleasure to sit there, either alone or with friends.

My favourite spot to sit is right below this red brick wall with framed crochet pieces! And there I sat, with my crochet-shawl-in-progress in my lap, sipping my coffee and cooling the day off.

This shawl is on my hook right now. It’s as soft and as green as it should be (made in the new Scheepjes whirl gradient yarn, following a pattern of Annelies Baes-Vicarno) and beautiful, even if I discovered yesterday that I needed to unravel half of it because I’ve missed a stitch and the whole pattern went off! Cry.

But it is what it is, I’ve frogged it while sitting at this coffee shop and put it in my bag again. Now it’s waiting for me to regain my calmness and start (almost all) over again 🙂

This Sunday it’s when our Daylight Saving Time begins. I’m raising my glass to the upcoming long daylights and to days springier than ever.

Froggy kisses from the pond

xxx