‘Tis the season of the Strawberry Moon, according to the Algonquin, Ojibwe and Lakota peoples. And from ancient Rome, we’d be one day past the Ides of June! Few people realize (unless they sat through Latin classes with Mrs. Dunn) that the Ides come every month. The 15th of March is the famous Ides because it was the chosen date of Julius Caesar’s demise via assassins. “Et Tu Brute?”!! But we are now just past the middle of this lovely month, in our time, and Mid-Summer Night’s Eve is soon to
“Outside the open window the morning air is all awash with angels. Love calls us to things of this world.”* This totally describes a morning in June with its singing birds, dewy grasses and long hours of light. Besides the beauty of the world around us there are all the people who give love and those who need love. June —— when graduating seniors get a bad case of “senioritis” and grade-schoolers gaze longingly out the windows of their classrooms ——when birds who flew north in March have fledg
How wonderful is the month of May? Its thirty-one days are all too short, even as February’s twenty-eight days are far too long. It is a month of moderate temperatures and new growth everywhere — flora and fauna. A perfect picture of May would be a spotted fawn peering out from a mélange of ferns, trilliums and dogwood. There are so many shades of green as the trees and shrubs leaf out, and many of my favorite plants are in bloom. The very air of May is fragrant. We planted potatoes last w
April showers --- and the slow increase of temperatures --- have brought May flowers and growing weeds as well as discovering which plants have made it through another winter. There are the burgundy sprouts of peonies --- old-faithful plants that laugh at winter weather. Day lilies are inches high, the ferns are tightly curled fronds, the trout lilies’ yellow bells are sunshine in the garden, and trilliums are going to bloom very soon. Hands in the dirt bring good vibes to the psyche!
M
Easter is just past though one of my favorite lilting, happy songs says: “Every morning is Easter morning from now on….”. It was a most unusual Easter morning which I will, perhaps speak of in a later essay. It included the death of a long-time friend and member of our congregation and I am still processing that.
To celebrate Earth Day, I’m thinking of planting peas in a pot. It is a bit too early for our clay soil to be warm and welcoming; seeds planted in the ground would likely rot in
“The sun was warm but the wind was chill; you know how it is with an April day when the sun is out and the wind is still, you’re one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud comes over the sunlit arch, a wind comes off a frozen peak, and you’re two months back in the middle of March..”*
Spring is here with its yoyo weather; in and out sunshine, torrential downpours and the occasional snow flurry. And with it comes mud season where feet can pop out of bo
Our recent spring-like weather has most of us who garden looking through our seeds and perusing the plant catalogs once again ---- just to make sure we have all that we need. Last week, the turkeys stopped coming down so often and I think the deer didn’t come at all. Of course, another snow-fall, and they will all be back. We probably are not quite done with wintry weather, but soon, soon! Someone (not sure who) said, “The first day of spring and the first spring day are quite different even
Ahhhh….. It’s March! Daylight savings time (this coming Sunday) and the Vernal Equinox (March 20) all in the same month. And yes, we will lose an hour, but it will be delightfully light longer in the day. We can feel the new life of Easter approaching, for the season of Lent began last Wednesday with a community service and luncheon. It is a time of introspection as well as awakening activity.
My process of cleaning out is continuing; it might continue on into infinity! “Yet occasiona
“I stood beside a hill, smooth with new-laid snow, A single star looked out from the cold evening glow. There was no other creature that saw what I could see --- I stood and watched the evening star as long as it watched me.”* Stars somehow look larger and clearer against a black sky, when the night is cold and still. This week’s melt has left us with much less snow though tomorrow will likely remedy that ---- but the stars are still shining, waiting for us to connect whenever we gaze up.
“I will make you brooches and toys for your delight; of bird song at morning and starshine at night…..”* If I could, I’d edge this essay with lace, tie it up with a red satin ribbon, and maybe add a balloon or two; in another four days we’ll be celebrating St. Valentine. Actually, most of us aren’t celebrating the Italian (Roman) saint at all; we are celebrating those who are dear to us in some way. And the retail markets are rejoicing over our weakness for cards, candy, perfume and lacy linge
I get a gold star this year for having my plant orders ready early. Last year several plants that I wanted were gone by March. I think people were shut in, bored, and were desperately wanting spring to come. That might well be true of this winter too. So --- I’m ready to call/send them in. I’m also ordering less. It’s an unhappy realization that the energy I have must be portioned out carefully --- and Kerm’s energy too. Dreaming about gardens is my panacea when winter annoys; I just need
It is mid-January and more light is coming through the tunnels of our winter days. The Christmas tree is out beneath the lilac, giving the birds another refuge from the always interested cats and hopeful hawks. The manger scene on the kitchen buffet and all the cool little animals have been carefully wrapped in tissue and packed away for another year. Hopefully, the wonder of this world-changing event more than 2000 years ago, doesn’t also get put away, but remains with us to light our days!
Remember that old song (well, depending on your age, some of you may not!) ---- “What are you doin’ New Year’s, New Year’s Eve?”* Ella Fitzgerald, Andy Williams, Margaret Whiting and more recently --- Harry Connick Jr. ---- were some of the notables who made this song popular. 2021’s last day is tomorrow and how will you spend the Eve? How have you spent New Year’s Eves in the past? We have had all sorts of “eves” in our lives; parties, watch-night services, quiet evenings at home, and one s
“It was a winter evening of transparent clearness, with an innocent young moon above the housetops...”* Isn’t that a great way to begin a story that could go anywhere? It is also a good description of a fine night in mid-December. Early winter evenings can, if we stop to absorb them, fill us with an awareness of how special life is, evening, morning or mid-day. Right now, outside my window a downy woodpecker is enjoying a cake of suet, and just a few yards away, the turkeys are cleaning u
No matter how many Christmases have gone by, or how many gray hairs I have, every year brings this feeling of expectancy, happiness and a bit of mystique when the season of Advent arrives. This is when I pull out our collection of Christmas and Hanukkah stories and try to read one or two/day. It is when I begin playing Christmas CDs alternately with the usual classical and folk music. It’s time for my totally unrealistic “to do” list, designed to create the perfect holiday times. Of course, I
I just knew it!! I closed my eyes for a few minutes and suddenly, it’s mitten weather although we have a brief few hours of warmth today before a cold front comes through! We’ve finally had several black frosts and I hope all the mosquitoes have turned into little entomologic ice cubes! There was snow last Sunday evening as we drove home from Pennsylvania; not unexpected, but unwelcome! An upside of this late fall season is that mornings are now made cheerier and warmer with a wood fire, t
Here in the northeast, we are well into Fall. Good weather lasted long this year, so we really can’t complain when the season starts being seasonable. Our cover crops never made it onto the gardens, but the potatoes are in storage and many of the weeds are pulled. Kerm has replaced the broken rails in the garden fence and repaired the dog pen where the bear broke through in July. One ursine youngster returned last week on his fall trek, but managed to get around the yard without breaking a
Leaves are turning all shades of brown, bronze, gold and scarlet ---- and falling ---- falling ---wafting down into crunchy heaps---- and there’s a morning chill in the air. As the spooky time of Halloween nears and the weather grows less balmy, our daylight hours will shorten with the ceasing of DST next month. I moan and groan about this every year since, when the darkness closes in, my mind tells me it is time to cease labors and go to bed. Five o’clock is a bit early for that message. T
October ---- – the elixir of autumn! Of course, we have had snow in October; not often, but I remember one or two snowy Halloweens, and while Kerm was still with Cooperative Extension, there was always a inter-county horse show on Columbus Day weekend. More often than not, weather was yucky sometimes to the point of snow showers. The horses wouldn’t be too happy but the kids were fine. It takes quite a lot of weather to dampen the spirits of horse-riding teens. But in my personal view of O
The Autumn Equinox has just passed and we are officially in the delightful fall season. The leaves are beginning to turn and the garden is shutting down. I’m making small stabs at fall cleaning as the crisper air gives me more energy. Note the “small” and “stabs”. Today the rains are pelting down and there is no crispness to the air --- but that is typical for the turning of the season.
Happy Anniversary to Shawn and Kristen! Their wedding, a few years ago, was a fine day in the park w
Do you have a time of the year when you feel more alive than other times? My favorite season is about to begin; mid-September through mid-November. As summer is winding down, my spirits are generally rising. I’m not sure why; perhaps the scent of falling leaves, the lessening of the humidity, or the return of the chickadees to our bird feeders. Whatever the reason I’m usually happier in the fall. As I think back, most of my depressive times have been in late winter (who wouldn’t be) or earl
“The wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round….” ,
“School days, school days, dear old Golden Rule days….”
“A B C D E F G……”
Those well-known tunes remind us that it’s nearly time for classes to begin again in NYS. In some places, public school kids are already slamming locker doors, treading the long halls, and taking in the aroma o
August is a time of star-watching. The Perseid meteors create a star-showered sky tonight. Lying on one’s back and seeing the wide canopy of stars is awesome; something I remember well from camp. I do not, however, chart my life events by those stars. Also, I’ve never liked the traditional flower and gem for this, my birth month. Some years ago, a friend from Colorado gave me a Native American horoscope for the same time, and I liked it much better. Instead of gladiolus, the flower for A
Caesar Agustus!! Is the calendar page really about to turn again? In our circling of seasons, July is bringing its warm, humid self to closure as August comes along with its half-summer and half-fall days. Some garden produce is ready for harvest (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, kale….). The roadsides are full of periwinkle blue chicory and Queen Anne’s Lace, and golden rod is beginning to blossom suggesting summer’s waning. August is my birth month, a month with no holidays except my birthday,
Mid-July and outside I hear the buzz of lawn mowers, the subdued sound of birds and occasionally, the rooster next door. I haven’t done a whole lot of dancing up and down the lawn recently, but there have been lovely twilights for porch-sitting or around a campfire. This has been a dreadful year for mosquitoes, but the “fragrance” of punk sticks keeps them at bay where we are sitting. That aroma reminds me of 4-H camp in the Bristol Hills of NYS, where I went as a camper and later as a couns
