Barbara Holland: 'A handful of moments'

"Poets and songwriters speak highly of spring as one of the great joys of life in the temperate zone, but in the real world most of spring is disappointing.  We looked forward to it too long, and the spring we had in mind in February was warmer and dryer than the actual spring when it finally arrives. We’d expected it to be a whole season, like winter, instead of a handful of separate moments and single afternoons." 

-- Barbara Holland, from Endangered Pleasures: In defense of naps, bacon, martinis, profanity, and other indulgences