May 24, 2023
This week, the trees in our
neighborhood have progressed from showing tiny green, nearly indistinguishable
buds to displaying young, light green leaves. Even our walnut tree, the last of
the trees in this area to leaf, has got almost sufficient greenery now to shade
my eyes from the early morning sun. Almost.
Our wonderful perennial spring
flowers—hyacinths and narcissi, daffodils and tulips—have bloomed and are
beginning to get ready to go back to sleep until next spring. The two peony
plants we have are gaining height and will soon fill the rings that are already
in place to keep them standing strong.
My lilies-of-the-valley
have begun to bloom, and since my lilacs are nearly there, I continue to
hope to catch that mingled scent on the air…any day now. Here, I have to add
that the other lilacs in this area are already in full, vibrant flower. My two
small bushes are always the last of their kind to show their mauve blossoms.
Back in the day when I was
driving David back and forth for his work, there was a small little park we
passed every day. On the last leg of our journey home, this park stood beside a
rural historical site (an actual house-turned-museum with a plaque, no less).
This small park has a little arced lane with two “entrances”. You can pull off
the road and park if you like or use it as a turn around—or even as a brief “detour”,
driving in one opening and out the other. It’s not very large, comprised mostly
of grass and features a public trash can that gets emptied on a regular basis.
There may have been a picnic table there at one time, as this county did have a
habit of providing those on small green spaces, in times past.
But the best feature of
this small park for me was the grouping of three flowering crab apple trees. Those
trees, when they bloomed, would be magnificent. But, unlike my trusty lilies
and narcissi, they never have blossomed every year. I have no idea why
that is, but several times in the last decade, but I keenly recall my occasional
disappointment when I realized that they weren’t going to give us a beautiful
display that year. I have missed the routine of driving by that spot to see if
they have flowered, or not. And because I am getting older, a few springs have
passed when that spot has completely slipped my mind.
I usually kick my butt when
that happens, because I really love taking a moment to look at those trees. For
more than a decade, I drove past them twice a day, and of all the things that stopped
forming my “normal” when David retired, that was the one that I have missed the
most.
While he was still working,
and being driven by our daughter, he would let me know when those trees were in
bloom, and I would take a half hour to drive out just to look at them.
This past week found us out
and about, and so we took a small detour and joy of joys, those trees were in
full flower! I even got a couple of pictures of them.
As for our veggie gardens,
they are slowly coming along. We had a couple of very chilly days, and that
certainly didn’t help. David planted bean seeds in one of the table gardens a
week ago, and nothing has sprouted. I suggested that perhaps between his
watering and the rain we got, they may have become water-logged.
At the moment, he’s very
down on his veggie gardens. Yesterday when we were talking about them, he used
the words, “unmitigated disaster”. I told him the truth. He was having a bad
season so far, because he began his planting way too early. He admitted to me
that he had been so eager for spring to begin, that in the moment, he couldn’t help
but let his impatience overrule his common sense.
I suggested that he write
all that down, so that next year, he could take the lessons learned this year
and apply them. In the meantime, today is May 24th—the day before which
planting one’s veggies had always been considered a risk. And we have lots of
time left, and sufficient resources, to replant and resow where we need to.
Sometimes, things don’t work
the first time we try them; and that’s just life.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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