Death warmed up, searches for a sign

I am SO tired of having this terrible cold. Of constant nose-blowing and hand-washing. Of having a head feeling like it's packed with cement. Of having no sense of smell (except for the cat trays - how cruel!) or taste. Of headache and mouth-breathing, and painful, puffy, streaming eyes and of scaring myself if I glance in a mirror. Of wanting to lie down even after a 5-minute totter round the block with a bored dog. I've run out of Manuka honey, of Greek honey, of French honey, and  anyway, I'm getting sick of hot water with lemon and honey. I want tea that tastes of tea! And maybe some crisps....

It's as dismal outside as I feel. The snow has given way to dirty slush, there's no sign of daylight today, and there's enough sleet coming down to discourage the dog, never one to venture forth in any degree of dampness, from getting off the front step without a helping human foot behind her.

Every few hours, there's a brief paracetamol-blessed respite during which things get done, like changing my bedding (oh the joy of a clean, crisp bed when you feel germ-laden and feeble!) or making a cake or a pot of watercress soup. Until the streaming starts again, and the urge to lie down, groaning pitifully, takes over, waves of self-pity washing over me, albeit with a small disapproving voice in my clogged-up brain snapping "Get a grip, woman! It's only a common cold!".

But I'm bored  with it all now; it's time to feel better, for the weather to improve, for daylight to break through the perpetual gloom. It's time for Spring to show her first tentative shoots.

And there they are. Looking out of my sitting room window at the dreariness of the front street and the tiny sodden patch that I fancifully call the front garden, with its blackened, slimy snow-victims that once were poppies and lavenders, I can see a little clump of snowdrop shoots that weren't there two weeks ago, standing sturdily upright, one of the most optimistic sights of this bleakest time of year.

Phew! That's all right then. In no time at all, they'll look like this.

I feel better already.