"Spring was moving in the air above"

Saturday was the first day of spring. In honor of the equinox, in lieu of a longer post, and in anticipation of my Wind in the Willows series (which I'm about to commence work on, having re-read the book): an excerpt, a continuation of my vernal greetings one year ago...
"Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged , and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, 'Up we go! Up we go!' till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.

'This is fine!' he said to himself. 'This is better than whitewashing!' The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side."

7 comments:

Richard Bellamy said...

Wind in the Willows is an awesome book - and a very sophisticated, mature one.

Stephen said...

MovieMan,

I'll be posting the gallery soon. You can add a screenshot after it's been posted.

I think it's best to put up what I have and maybe use it as an enticement.

Thanks.

Joel Bocko said...

Stephen,

That sounds like a reasonable approach, but I'd definitely advise you to keep a string of updates on the post and/or put new images near the top, otherwise they'll be little incentive for people to keep re-visiting it and/or submitting new additions. (Of course, I'll be sending you something either way, and probably doing a multiple images post as a tie-in...)

Stephen said...

"That sounds like a reasonable approach, but I'd definitely advise you to keep a string of updates on the post and/or put new images near the top, otherwise they'll be little incentive for people to keep re-visiting it and/or submitting new additions."

You're right, MovieMan.

There is a separate page for the gallery with a link on the sidebar, so it will be easier to get back to.

Joel Bocko said...

Makes sense. Try & keep a running update on additions, too (I tried to do this with the Blog '09) so that readers can see what's new. Looking forward to contributing, though I haven't a clue yet what I'll pick!

Joel Bocko said...

Hokahey, completely agreed. I think my series will focus primarily on exploring the different facets of the story though originally I was most interested in comparing how each adaptation interpreted the book. I'll still do that, but with the emphasis on the book's themes...

Stephen said...

Will do, MovieMan.

What you did with Blog 09 was great and worked well for those coming back not knowing where they'd left off, so to speak.