It's getting to be that time again, for all you love junkies out there. Spring is in the Air!

"Spring is a season of cliches -- birds singing, bees buzzing and people falling madly in love. If you're a scientist though, the love sickness can be blamed on one very real thing.

"It's dopamine," says Helen Fischer, a neuroscientist, professor at Rutgers University and author of five books on the science of love.

Fisher says dopamine is a naturally occurring chemical your brain uses to make you want things. There are other systems involved in love, but when it comes to new love, dopamine is the main culprit. And with enough of it swirling around your system, you're prone to fall in love -- and fall hard.

What does this have to do with spring? Dopamine is triggered by novel experiences.

"And there's so much novelty in the spring," said Fischer. "There is so much more color, new smells, people take their clothes off and you can see more of them. And so there is a lot of new stimuli that trigger the brain and drive up dopamine, and make you more susceptible to love."

Every April your brain unwittingly becomes a dopamine factory, turning you into a love junkie. In fact, brain scans of people flooded with the stuff look a lot like brain scans of drug addicts. Which makes sense, since being high on dopamine feels, as many lovers would put it, euphoric."

And love, like spring, springs eternal. ;-)

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2010/04/09/love-in-spring

April is great!

By the time April is here, the rainy season will have come and gone where I am (jkz). By virtue that winter seems to have ended early this year. It was mild at that.

I would love to visit Japan in late March or early April for it's Cherry blossom season. I hear it's beautiful. We get the four seasons where I live, so spring is still wunderful when it rolls around.

Come to Washington, D.C.! The cherry trees around the Tidal Basin (which were a gift from Japan) are a treat to see when in full bloom. Asian and Asian-American parents will often bring their daughters in full ethnic dress to pose for pictures in front of the cherry blossoms. Plus there are a number of significant memorials (FDR, MLK, Korean war, WWII) in the area that you can visit.

That's funny you mention that. Just last night I was perusing a travel guide for the Cherry blossom season in DC.

I may do that this year. Although considering the price of the tour I could afford to fly to Japan for less! (I could go it on my own, but would prefer a group tour if I were to go.)

:)

. . .unless you're in the Palouse; we finally got snow in mid-February.

Wow. That is late for that region of the country.

I have several cousins who live in the area there. One on the Washington side, and two on the Idaho. One of them is married to a rancher.

Pretty country !

:)

It's late for the Washington side at least. December had a few flurries, January had rain, mid-February the snows came.

Still a pretty region, though.

My cousins like it there. They moved from the SE part of Idaho, higher up in the Rockies, with its arid dry heat and cold.

Spring has sprung here in sandland.

Seeds are sprouting and orange blossom season starts in a week.

Life is good. But you knew that. :o)

That does sound lovely.

One of my aunts grew up in southern California. Her parents ran a florist, restaurant, and a fruit orchard. They made their own orange blossom lotion they sold for years.

Auntie gave me a bottle of that one year, and I was hooked.

:)

There is green everywhere! Maybe I'm green. What does it mean? Time to plant the bigger, better butterbean!

A [black] butterfly flew up to me today and said "you don't need butter to fly" (I didn't have any butter, or wings) and I said "hi". Soon enough, there were more... and then an orange one flew by, and said "bye"; I wondered why - oh yea, I don't fly.

What is love? Why do you ask? It comes from above, not from a dove. It's time to bask! A tisket, a tasket, why don't you ask it; pick it and put it in your basket.

Love comes. Love goes. It even flows! Where? Nobody knows. It shows!

M@t

Really great poem moremany. I dub thee the poet of RfM rubbadubbee. :)

❤️

Thanks Amyjo. You would know!

Speaking of love... how do you do the purple-pink heart?

Emoji encyclopedia. It's the only one that can copy and paste to Rfm board.

Don't ask me why. I only post here. ;-)

It does make for a nice visual for a wide range of subjects though, don't it? :-)

https://emojipedia.org/heavy-black-heart/

The birds are singing around here. It is still snowing though and it is very cold outside. But they are moving back home after spending the winter down in southern Europe. Maybe they should have extended their vacation?

Birds chirping are a good indicator spring's right around the corner.

Stay warm, friend!

❤️

Whoa ! I couldn't figure out why I was horny.

Take the Neanderthal quiz. You might be more than you know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXfYC5xqeF4

Red hair. Freckles. Depression. Are three genetic traits of having Neanderthal genes. The video quiz cites ten.

As for horny genes. You're a guy. It goes with the territory.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140617-how-often-do-men-think-about-sex



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2018 05:02PM by Amyjo.