These “post” cards have arrived in the “mail” over the last few days. Remember Post Cards? When was the last time you wrote or received a bonafide, tactile postcard? Nowadays, you just have to expand your view on the genre.
What is especially notable for me is that they are known to be from what is formally tagged as “the California blossom trail”. Wouldn’t it be great to live where they celebrate the blossom trail?
IF almond blossoms redwoodbarn.com, Davis
2/17/16 photo courtesy Murray Family Farms, Bakersfield
2/7/2106 McGrath Family Farms, Camarillo
2/20/16 Mc Evoy Ranch, Petaluma
2/10/16 Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood
Let me just admit before I go off on my little story, that I realize that New Jersey is, in pun-centered terms, neither fish nor fowl, that is, it isn’t seemingly part of the mid-Atlantic region nor the Northeast. We “joy-sey” people live in a land which is virtually unclassifiable (no pushback on that one). That being said, let’s examine:
In my mind, you can consider the Winter in the northeast(sic) in a number of ways:
-first, if you are a fan, you can relish in it’s downright wickedness, the rile of icy wind and precip urging you out to compete, face to face, with all the ferocity that Mother Nature can throw at you. Or,
– you can calmly and philosophically consider the change of seasons to be a cleansing, resting and rejuvenation of the earth, breathing temporally held at bay and finally in reward, in an unfolding in the Springtime, a lovely, long-sought presentation of unfolding of sweetness and beauty. Or,
-you can go into deep hibernation and, by choice and instinct, sleep through the entirety, like the bears, ground hogs and hedgehogs. Or,
-you can remain in place and wish to have been created in the “to hibernate” of species, only awakening when the sources of your food and the warming sun have themselves returned. Or,
– if you are a lucky one and keep your face up high enough that you can be open to consideration of the option to migrate, along with patterns from antiquity, to the reaches where the gifts of nature are more certain to swaddle and uplift your spirit, soul and psyche in the peaceful moderation of long, lanquid growing seasons and the gentle vespers of soft and narrow swings in temperature and conditions.
I have long dreamed of the latter.
Just about now, the photos such as those shown above begin to send messages to me, beckoning to join in the commune of the lovers of long-edged lovely and blessed seasons of the ever-growing – and wishing to migrate to the west coast.
I confess to having little if no understanding of the meteorological explanation for the difference between the climes at each parallel on the east coast vs the west and honestly, I don’t really need to. It is only that I can feel some deep and instinctual gravitational pull toward that western sphere where the likes of Alice Waters (a “Joy-sey” girl much smarter than I), Thomas Keller and a multitude of others, toil and feast, teach, grow and relish in their own gifted, blessed and fruitful environs. Give them all a hand for subscribing to their callings and allowing themselves to sail away to the West.
So, if at all like-minded, you might today consider these as sources of inspiration, should you be wanting to go out and along on the blossom trail, right now, in California, where life is in full bloom and where the growing season for some crops lasts a full 12 months:
http://redwoodbarn.com/DE_Whatsthattree.html
http://www.californiagreekgirl.com/californias-blooming-in-february/http://www.californiagreekgirl.com/californias-blooming-in-february/
http://www.riponchamber.org/news_events/almond_blossom_festival.aspxhttp://www.riponchamber.org/news_events/almond_blossom_festival.aspx
http://greenlifeinsocal.com/2010/02/17/february-fruits-flowers-and-veggies-in-a-southern-california-garden/http://greenlifeinsocal.com/2010/02/17/february-fruits-flowers-and-veggies-in-a-southern-california-garden/
http://www.stemilt.com/blog/company/real-time-scenes-california-cherry-bloom/http://www.stemilt.com/blog/company/real-time-scenes-california-cherry-bloom/
http://thehorticult.com/bloom-alert-the-wild-white-confetti-of-the-evergreen-pear-tree/http://thehorticult.com/bloom-alert-the-wild-white-confetti-of-the-evergreen-pear-tree/
My most favorite photo from the postcard file – here I see myself, as I would have been, age 7 ish, running off in the shadow of a flowering display, in a light jacket, free as a bird……….. (Thank you to Stacie Pierce for posting – I hope you won’t mind that I am so enamored of it and included it here.)
Lest none of this be of interest to you, feel free to sign off early and go back to doing what it was that you were happily occupied with before arriving at this page. For those like me, continue along the ride on the blossom trail, where it makes perfect sense to want to live, and, where life is beautiful, fragrant and producing, 12 months a year……….