Sunday, November 18, 2018
When seemingly crazy things happen, I find myself trying to find the message that may be traveling though the ethos and sending along signals to pause for consideration……… Sometimes I try humor, as in signing onto Mother Nature’s message board, sometimes I look to try to read the hidden or not so hidden messages swirling around in the universe. If you are one to consider that there are messages not to be ignored in the ofttimes minuscule changes to our own environment, some larger than minuscule, read on. If not, you can read on for the sheer amusement of one person’s mental acuity or profound lack thereof. Let’s just reflect upon the last week or two and I am game to use my own window as fodder…….
We won’t go into the reality of Climate Change here today. Let’s just say that the evidence is there and if you choose to ignore it, well, that is your prerogative and you do so at risk of your own demise. oops
For those of us who are pretty much used to, in normal times – if there are such a thing, working up to a moment of hope, for a swath, albeit short and sparse, of white Christmas in about 5 weeks or so, Thursday here was one helluva mess. While the opposite coast burns and we mourn the people and animals who died, who are missing and the tragic and staggering loss of towns, property and livelihoods, we here on the east coast were festooned(?) (sic) with a winter storm in the middle of November. We had about 6″ of snow on November 15 and all hell broke loose. People out driving couldn’t get up 5% inclines, abandoned cars were everywhere and in our part of Morris/Somerset County all was a maze of gridlock. A commute home of normally 30 minutes turned into 3 1/2 hours. What happened? Everyone in my area must have momentarily lost their minds – they surely lost their ability to drive!
Anyway, as I sit here this morning and peer out the window from my upstairs desk, I am looking at a scene that is most reminiscent of January or February. It is downright confusing and destabilizing – as in, I feel like I just lost two months from the calendar! Life is bad enough for me at this time of year anyway as I stumble around in a state of outright denial that all of the growing season is skidding to an end. This just rubs salt in those wounds if you know what I mean.
Last Sunday I was happily strolling around the NYBG and feasting my eyes upon the remaining roses in the state of bloom and happily imagining the arrival of 6 new Pomponella Fairytale Roses (Kordes) which were due to be shipped on Monday, November 12. I made all arrangements to widen my bed in anticipation and have them happily deposited into the ground by the end of the week. Argggghhh.
November 11 NYBG
The best laid plans…….. I spent awhile yesterday outside in snow boots scraping snow off the ground and hauling the remains of several once bushy late season marigolds out of the ground and digging holes to get these bare-root roses tucked in tight. Six bags of Lobster Compost from Coast of Maine being hauled out of the back of the car and I found myself saying some mental prayers that these were going to be alright come Spring 2019.
An outright state of confusion has swept over me as I grasp that I had perhaps been dragging my feet a little (ya think) as I muddled through my “put the garden to bed” chores this year. All was going along fine until that forecast for snow on Thursday. In typical fashion I brushed it all aside and thought we’d wind up with a few squalls and flurries here and there and all would be a memory by Friday morning. Ha!
Aside from the Thursday commute home fiasco, I got my husband’s car stuck in the side yard where it fishtailed across and nearly landed on top of one of my dogwood trees. I wound up having to drive all across this part of my yard which is now a mud-strewn mess which I will have to deal with in the Spring. Getting your car stuck in the snow in mid November in your own yard is also very disconcerting. The plow came and, as usual miscued on the track and ran over sprinkler heads and lawn and that is all a mess, too. And so, what do we learn? That when you try to plow (or drive) when the ground is not frozen yet it becomes a huge mess! Do I want to deal with any of these issues at this time? NO!
Nov 11 NYBGI was happily going about in my delusional state, hoping that the growing season will keep on for a few more weeks anyway, while the roses still pushed bloom (even though I know they really shouldn’t be) and some azaleas are actually in bloom at NYBG). I snapped this pic, above and a state of alarm flowed though my veins.
Well anyway, my point here, as I babble along, is to say that Mother Nature has obviously taken up with the computer, as do many senior citizens, to avoid complete and embarrassing obsolescence, and has inevitably found the delete button. It looks as though November and December have been ripped off the calendar and we have fast-forwarded into January and February. For someone like me, this is a cruel event. I am stuck between wanting to go backward to say, May, or to fast forward right through the entire Winter and arrive at, let’s say, April, but NOT last April, and not experiencing anything like this past Summer either.
To those of you who may get a smidgeon of what I am talking about, all of this begs the existential question, is there anywhere where one can find temperate, sunny days, low humidity, and enough intermittent precipitation to satisfy all needs and to enjoy one’s existence on this earth? Can we be sans tragedy, sans drought, sans flood, sans super storms, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, vermin, disease? I don’t know. I suppose this could be a good prelude to the idea of Thanksgiving. We could be thankful for what we have, for being alive, for having the willpower to make the earth a better place to the extent that we can, and for hope that humanity will endeavor to save our planet.
And so, if a bit of snarling snow can push us back on our heals for a just a moment to consider, we could be more respectful of what Mother Nature is saying to us. Ok, well, consider anyway. It is Sunday. A good day to consider.
Bonne Journée!