Trowel and Trunk: My Year 2020 in Flowers - What We Love Sustains Us

Harley and me – Perfect Together Santa Barbara, CA Jan 2020

Well, we have all trundled through the ups and downs of 2020 as best we could under the circumstances. However we did it, if you are reading this, you have made it through, maybe scarred, bewildered and tried by the year’s events and pigeon-holing limitations on our circulation outside of our homes. What limited us physically challenged us to find new opportunities, to seek new pastimes and vocations, hobbies and doodling to prevent mold-growing, stymieing, and all-around suffocation, boredom and outright crabbiness. Without too much trouble, there for us to see were several possibilities sitting right there in front of our noses, right in the landscape. Lucky for most of us, the lockdowns occurred for the most part during the nicer months of the year. If you are at all like me, you needed nothing more than a set of two eyes, a trowel and a trunk (as in car to fill up with flowers – many are free by the side of the road) to see yourself about on a mission as happy as can be. Call me crazy but I found plenty to do this year and I had fun circulating about, albeit in a very limited purview, with a very limited range (I did miss NYC a lot), but kept myself occupied in a haze of giddiness. I had all the entertainment I needed, much of which was in my own backyard. I continued my foray into novice flower arranging – just doing it to have fun.

We began 2020 in our beloved getaway of Santa Barbara, CA. I returned to NJ in the third week of April to have the gift of a second Spring. Believe me, two seasons of ranunculus et al is like a dream come true. While at home in NJ this year we spent a lot of time exploring the wonderful venues around us – among them Bucks County, PA, Stockton, NJ, the amazingly photogenic hamlets of the Hudson Valley, Locust Valley and environs on Long Island, special garden and nursery venues in west central NJ, and returned to the jewels of Montclair, Bernardsville, and Long Valley. What was the greatest blessing for me was that, in addition to getting to play daily in my own garden and enjoying the daily changes in my own yard, for the most part, gardens, nurseries and farms in and around NJ remained open to the public, offering great amounts of respite for me.

So now, today, on this last day of 2020, I have gone through all of my photos from the 364 days before and I salute all those who grew the great gifts of the year, on hill and dale, and brought me great joy! And, to Mother Nature herself, you gave me great fodder to play with each and every day of the year, whether through the lens or to arrange with in a little glass bowl! Call it all one big perpetual play date! And, bless you all!

Here is a little cobbled-together photo journal of some of my favorite flower photographs of the year.

Janvier:

I am always a little in disbelief spending the winters here. I have to chuckle to myself every time I ask for something at the nursery and they tell me it is Winter. It turns out that Winter is a relative thing especially if you are born and bred in NJ and wind up in a place like SB in those months. I am always gleeful to see the specimens of Winter here. In comparison, they make the Christmas tree season seem almost unnecessary.

Fevrier:

In my poem Months, I wrote in 1978, “February’s faithful friend, Herr Groundhog’s just around the bend…….” Here, there is nary a hint of February’s often frigid winds and snows.

Mars:

In the last few years, March has been timidly optimistic in NJ. In CA, it’s just a blend of the growing months before and after. Peach blossoms, and wisteria will appear which actually make me giddy.

my favorite shot from the back side of Ortega Ridge Rd.

Avril:

happily back in NJ for the “fine months” with my beloved daffodil harvest where I can start Spring all over again:

The glorious proliferation that is Mai in New Jersey:

Exquisite Juin:

Juillet: Month of abundant color, texture and a deepening obsession with poppies

Août:

In August I set about communing with the plethora of butterflies that are in the gardens and, I began my treks up to Stonecrop Gardens to see their incredible dahlias as soon as it was open.