Sometimes it hits me how much I miss celebrating the seasons of the year in New England. Strawberry picking in the field and beach sunsets for midsummer, apple picking in the orchard and visiting the old-fashioned cider mill at the autumn equinox, picking out a Christmas tree at the local tree farm before the solstice, visiting a sugar house and stocking up on maple syrup for the coming year on the spring equinox…
This year my daughter Larisa hosted a wonderful feast for Lughnasa/Lammas, complete with a loaf of challah bread in honor of the first harvest festival. Katherine read the poem I posted on my blog that morning before we started eating. Later, as we were finishing up one of the guests suggested we go apple picking from a neighborhood tree. I was startled and found myself blurting out for the second time this year, “I’m having trouble adjusting!” And then added, as if to explain to the puzzled group, “Apple-picking is for the autumn equinox!”
The first time I blurted that out was back in March, when everyone down here was busy picking strawberries. I had to explain then that to me, picking strawberries happens in June and means the summer solstice. To me. This is proving to be a most difficult adjustment for my brain.
For Lughnasa we used to visit Buttonwood Farm, walk through their huge sunflower field, go on a hayride and stand in a long line for ice cream made right there on the farm. This year, I joined my daughter and her guests for a short walk to a solitary little apple tree. I watched my grandchildren climb it and pick some apples. On the first day of August. (Sadly, I had left my camera at home, missing a great photo op…) My brain is still perplexed but hopefully some day I will find a way to adjust!
After a lifetime of living a certain way and mindset, I imagine it will take a while to adjust!
So true, I have to give myself more time to discover new markers as we move through the seasons down here!
I’d have trouble adjusting, too, Barbara. I think the longer we stay in one area, the harder it gets to move away — and the harder it gets to choose where to move to! They say it takes about two years before one acclimates to a new place after a move — if you decide to stay put and not go back!
I think about that two-year period of acclimation often, ever since you first mentioned it to me. My sister-in-law, who has moved frequently over the years, agrees that it takes about that long. We’ve been here a little over a year now so I imagine by next summer I’ll be feeling much more at home in these seasons!
After so many years in a four-season state, I can see the difficulty in getting acclimated to this new norm for seasons. And too bad this new norm also involves climate change and hotter-than-usual weather. I’d equate strawberry picking with Summer and apple picking with Autumn, same as your former seasonal schedule. I have always welcomed Autumn … the food, smells, crispness of the air and sweater weather. When I came home this morning, my neighbor’s Magnolia bush is once again in bloom. I’ve now lost track how many times since Spring – at least five, maybe six. That bush bloomed once late April/early May and was done until the following Spring.
I think seeing daffodils in February should have been my first big clue of what was to come! One thing I’ve fallen in love with down here is the lovely crape myrtle trees. Some call them the flower of the south and I first noticed them last summer blooming everywhere, all summer long. The internet says the flowers can last for 90–120 days, depending on the variety. They come in many shades of pink and rose and watermelon red, white and purple. So I think this will be one new seasonal association for me, summer and its endlessly blooming crape myrtles. 🙂
Yes, I guess daffodils in February was a clue, but with climate change, I’ve seen Snowdrops popping up in early February now. The way I walk to the Park I always pass a house where the homeowner has a succession of Spring flowers popping up under his tree in the front yard. I’ve taken photos of his Crocuses for my blog – they are popping up earlier and earlier every year. I had not heard of Crape Myrtle until Ann Mehrling wrote about it – it was growing in her yard when she moved to NC from Long Island. So I had to Google to read about it. They are beautiful – they will take the place of the Swamp Roses you loved. I got some pics of Swamp Roses for next week’s post to include for you. (The glacial erratics will be in a future post too.)
I’ve been doing some research about which spring flower bulbs are deer resistant and daffodils do top the list. Tulips are not, which may explain why I’ve never seen any tulips down here. I like what your neighborhood homeowner did with their succession of spring bulbs blossoming. I might try planting some this fall, and see what happens in the spring. I’ll have to note on my calendar which ones come up when, lol. Looking forward to your pictures of the wild roses! Too bad we can’t send the smell of them over the internet! I saw a large rock with sharp edges the other day. But it didn’t have the rounded edges of a glacial erratic. 🙁 I will have to get some crape myrtle pictures for my blog.
I wonder if deer don’t like daffodils because they have a smell? Right now this homeowner has Black-eyed Susans blooming in the same spot that the early bloomers come up. Next door to him is a homeowner’s garden in the middle of the yard filled with Cannas. I usually look to see if there are hummingbirds but don’t see any. When we lived in Canada, we had a planter’s box with Cannas and I remember hummingbirds liked them. I got some swamp rose photos at Lake Erie Metropark too – pink ones and very pretty. I hope you do post Crape Myrtle photos. Our flowers will be waterlogged for sure. We had torrential rain for about three hours straight, plus a thunderstorm. I hope you are faring well with Debby. Charleston is in dire straits from what I heard on the news earlier.
Birds & Blooms says: “Daffodils are the king of deer-resistant bulbs. They contain an alkaloid called lycorine that is distasteful and even poisonous to deer, rabbits and other mammals.” There are so many flowers out there. I looked up Cannas and found that they need full sun, which I definitely don’t have here with all these trees. Somehow, I don’t think I would enjoy gardening much down here. Not sure if it’s a lack of motivation or energy or both. Or maybe it’s all the weird bugs I encounter every time I go outside! Debby didn’t bother us much, but some neighboring counties had small tornados and flash flooding.
That is interesting as I thought it was the smell, just like Marigolds have that same pungent odor so that Birds & Blooms and others recommending planting them where rabbits like to eat plants. I noticed today that the homeowner I mentioned has continuous color from Spring to Fall under a tree, now has August Lilies in bloom alongside the Black-eyed Susans. How do all those bulbs and roots fight for space in such a small area, yet are all healthy plants. It is only an area about three feet square and under a big tree, so lot of shade.
I have lost my desire to tackle a big garden … it is a lot of work and as I walk through the neighborhoods on days I walk to/from Council Point Park, I am amazed that these gardens are thriving given the sun beating down and we did not have a gentle rains, but torrential rains, sometimes for hours, all season and in the Spring. You remember the homeowner who planted around 30 Arbor Vitae a few months ago? I was surprised to see one has died and two are half dead, which surprises me as the rest are in good shape and they are hardy bushes – you recommended them for my backyard.
I’m glad you were unscathed by Debbie, but neighboring counties with their aftermath are too close for comfort. That is often the same here – Monroe County is 30 miles from me (Wayne County) and they often have tornadoes. A little more rural area.
Sometimes I think plants are like people. They all need different environments in order to thrive. Some enjoy crowded gatherings and others are solitary souls, and all kinds of preferences for water and sunlight in between. That’s too bad about the struggling arborvitaes. I suppose they do better in some locations than others. Maybe it pays to have the soil tested before investing in any major plantings to see if they’re compatible. My neighbor, who is a native North Carolinian so she seems to be acclimated, is outside in all this heat and humidity tending her garden almost daily. I know I couldn’t invest that much energy into it but her little area looks so pretty and I can enjoy looking at it from my kitchen windows.
Yes, that is true Barbara. I walk over to Memorial Park, just a block over from me, where there is a volunteer garden. I used to get lots of photos of Monarchs on the wild Milkweed or Swallowtails on the Coneflowers. One butterfly this year, however, they don’t tote water in for this garden, but we’ve had many torrential rains this year. The person who takes care of it is in her 80s … supposedly the only one who works there according to a conversation with her last year. A large pile of mulch was dumped next to the gardens (there are four raised gardens there) and has been sitting there since June. But despite not being weeded, mulched, deadheaded, or fertilized (I’m assuming that), the flowers grow well on their own. I dwell on my backyard every time I go back there and after this hot and stormy Summer, I don’t think I have it in me to be like your neighbor again. For me, the walking is done in the morning – I never have been a fan of working in the heat, so I’d have to take care of the garden when I came home or go back out in the evening when it’s cooler, which for me, once I am home and in the house, I stay in for good. Or forego walking several days a week. I suspect it also me getting older, too, but the heat does sap our energy. Kudos to your neighbor for her gardening efforts. When I worked and my garden looked nice, I did my gardening and watering by hand before I left for work or went on errands on Saturday (errand day) and did all the big gardening stuff on weekends weather permitting. Youthful enthusiasm.
At this point in my life it’s much more fun to take a walk and photograph other people’s gardens than it would be to tend to my own. But I used to love gardening and sometimes miss weeding and communing with the mourning doves who used to come and watch me, keeping me company. Somehow I went from that to being annoyed when I had to deadhead one pot of petunias on the balcony. I’m not sure how that happened to me… I don’t think aging is the only factor because I know plenty of people my age who are still enjoying their gardening chores. I think dealing with the board of the condo association wore me out. About 20 years ago they ripped up a lot of our gardens and trees to give room to construction workers putting new siding and windows on our units. It was never the same afterwards…
Wow. They say writing is good therapy and I think writing the above gave me a lightbulb moment. And they never got around to bringing our balcony up to code so decorating it with potted plants in the summer hardly disguised how run down it was. Sigh…
I know people get very disgruntled with their home owners associations, whether for condos or neighborhoods. I don’t blame you for being angry – that seemed senseless to me after all that hard work. I was in the driveway pulling the car out this morning and the neighbor two doors away came over to tell me two neighbors who have work vans had been robbed of tools from their work vans over the weekend. Both work vans are parked on the street, not in their driveways. The neighbor said the Ring Doorbell showed the guy parked in front of my house, which surprises me as I have a sensor pole light which lights up my property well and the streetlight is across the street from me. I saw one of the two neighbors posted their Ring video on Facebook for our City’s Resident Forum. The last three or four years people have posted Ring videos of people taking their hanging baskets right from their porch. I always thought “well that’s not near me, but I’d be mad if that happened and tempted not to put anything out again!” I don’t understand people anymore.
That seems pretty weird, stealing a hanging basket of flowers. We had a “welcome” turtle ground ornament for years that we brought with us down here. I was always happy nobody stole it! They did, however, steal some expensive ceramic mushrooms I bought at a gift shop. Sigh. Yesterday Tim & I talked a bit about our experience with the HOA back in Connecticut. (He had even tried serving on the board for a few years.) The problem is, I guess, living with a group of neighbors who don’t share the same values and taste preferences. The place was beautiful when we bought it but after a decade the renovations they voted on were so ugly it was very depressing to live there any more. As soon as we moved out they cut down that beautiful river birch we had planted in our front garden. I had a feeling as I said goodbye to it on the day we left that I would never see it again. 🙁
I don’t understand people anymore either Barbara. The comments in our Residents forum for our City usually are “get a job so you don’t have to steal”. Do you have a residents forum for your city for crime or just miscellaneous matters? That’s a shame about the river birch tree – to cut a healthy tree down for no reason. We had a birch years ago and it got a disease and had to be removed, but it looked so stately in the front of the house. People who do not appreciate nature should not be in positions that involve nature.
Tim usually keeps up with local things like residents forums and forwards me things he thinks might be of interest to me. I’m too much of a dreamer to get so involved in local happenings. I guess I pay more attention to the local TV news. (Like the murderer who escaped from prison custody the other day. He was being transported to a medical appointment. They finally caught him this morning.)
Yeah, it was frustrating the last years we were there when everything the HOA voted on came out opposite of what we wanted. For years we paid into an assessment to have our balconies repaired and brought up to code. Some got done. Ours never did. And now, they’ve informed everyone that each unit owner is responsible for their own balcony. So glad we got out of there!
That does sound like a ripoff for your HOA dues … it is good you got out of there and made a new life in North Carolina.
I like following the local crime even though I don’t venture out in the dark at all. I did hear about that escaped prisoner on the national news and I am glad he was caught. On the news tonight I heard more of the story and how someone had helped to plan his escape, someone he only spoke to on the phone. Immediately thought of the Vicky White and Casey White breakout story. I was nervous when the police officer was killed five miles from here and his killer was on the loose for 24 hours recently. All the local communities had police officers, dogs, drones and helicopters looking for him. A reward finally netted him. But he had escaped on a bicycle. Ran into someone’s yard and grabbed a bike and took off.
That’s one reason we always keep our doors locked, after that surge of random home invasions a few years ago.
I would not open my door in the dark and I quit handing out Halloween candy about 10 years ago because it was more big kids than little kids who now seem to go to City-sponsored or church-sponsored trunk or treat events.
Oh, it is interesting to relocate to a different geographic region and climate. While I’ve always lived in the Midwest, I spent a late spring and summer in California and part of a winter in Florida. It was strange that the calendar didn’t seem to match what was going on outside. Enjoy your time with family and the adventures ahead. 🙂
Beth@PlantPostings.com
Thank you, Beth. 🙂 I lived in New England my whole life, 67 years, until about a year ago, except for a couple of years when our family was living in Greece when I was a teenager. That move was involved a big dose of climate shock, too. It is a strange feeling, getting used to new trees and plants, and even familiar ones blossom or bear fruit at different times.
I have really never celebrated the seasons of the year as you have, Barbara. I have never picked strawberries in a field or apples from trees.
I’m sitting here enjoying wine spritzer flavored by apple and citrus with a sliced Fugi apple, Triscuts, and Gouda cheese.
I’m hoping for a better season ahead. 🍎
Celebrating the seasons made me feel connected to mother earth, helping me feel grounded in the natural world. Every 6½ weeks, approximately, I have a new festival to look forward to. I was so happy to find the summer solstice celebration at the Piedmont Wildlife Center and I’m sure I will find more ways to flow with seasons down here, as time goes on. Your simple evening celebration sounds very lovely!
Apple picking already! Oh I’d have a difficult time wrapping my head around that, too. We do that in October here.
And it was just one lonely apple tree. And the nearest apple orchard to us is a three hour drive away. Too far!
I never thought about the different harvest times for living in the south. Do you get to enjoy fresh produce more months of the year there? I know in the middle of winter, and early spring, I regularly lament the lack of flavorful fruits and veggies!
My head is still spinning from seeing strawberries in March! I imagine the growing season is much longer here and I’m just starting to pay attention to what is available when. At the farmers market there is so much to look at that I haven’t sorted it all out yet.