After harvesting green beans, radishes and rhubarb from my garden last evening, and giving my beloved flower gardens and plants a good drink of water, I took a moment and sat out on my white wicker settee to enjoy the evening. I have some patio lights strung and turned them on for a little romantic evening ambiance. As I sat there just breathing in the evening air and enjoying my own little oasis, I saw the blinking of the lightening bugs among the bushes. Each summer I wait patiently for them to return. They make me happy, how could they not with their bottoms all aglow.
While I watched them blinking around my yard, it made me think of the changing of the seasons and what I most looked forward to as each season arrives. I love living in an area where there are four seasons. Maybe it is because I was raised in Colorado and know nothing different, except when I lived in Arizona for three years. While living in Arizona I enjoyed sunbathing temperatures in March, but the summer months were rough, and well, there was the part of no snow and missing my big thunderheads that brought me back to Colorado.
So here a few things that bring me happiness with the changing of each season.
Spring
Let’s start with spring, just because it is my favorite season. As winter wears on, our bodies have cocooned long enough, and we are ready for some warm sunshine. I love watching for the first spring bulbs to poke their noses out of the ground. This is when 40 degrees feels like shorts weather, and out I go, wrapped in a quilt, sitting down on my bench face up to the sun and sip on a hot coffee. It is like a reawakening of all my senses.
Aren’t these tulips beautiful!
The first Robins arrive, hopping about in the yard looking for worms to eat and grass to build their nest. The croaking frogs in the marsh are a sure sign (most times) that spring is here. I pull my bike out of the garage, pump up the deflated tires, and clean it up for a new season of exploring. Bentley – my lab – and I walk the marsh trails looking for what birds are arriving and for the sunbathing turtles. See, even the turtles think it is shorts weather.
Turtle sunbathing at the lake
Summer
What is there not to love about summer, except the bugs, uugggg the gnats in their clusters are the worst! But oh, bike rides on the state trails, hiking and kayaking, now that is pure happiness.
Then there is the planning and planting of the vegetable garden and roaming the aisles of greenhouses and meandering through nurseries for the perfect addition of annuals and perennials to the garden, or maybe even a new tree I have wanted in my yard for years.
After planting my vegetable garden, I wait patiently for the first harvest. This is also when my dye garden gets ready to give me new flowers for the dye pot. My first couple of Coreopsis are blooming and soon there will be a whole garden full of Coreopsis, waiting to make their mark on fabric.
First Coreopsis and many more to come!
With all the grey winter months behind us the excitement for clear blue skies and sunshine bubble up. Even with the excitement of sunshine and warmer days, I look forward to the big billowy thunderheads rolling in, welcome the rain accompanied by the rumble of thunder and flashes of the lightening shows. This is when a few candles are lit, a cup of tea made, and I head to the couch with a good book tucked under my arm.
Summer brings people out for the numerous park festivals, live music, and farmers markets. Boats are readied for the water summer excursions and the Mississippi fills with fishermen and boats out for a day on the river. It is like everyone comes alive at once.
One of the many wonderful things about living on the Mississippi, is the anticipated July 4th celebration and fireworks over the river. Each year God seems to give us a spectacular sunset, right before the firework display as a prelude to the upcoming show. People lay out quilts to gather on, set up chairs, and boats tether at the dock in anticipation. Let the show begin!
Fall
By the end of summer, I am ready to start slowing down at bit.
Fall is spectacular here! The anticipation of the leaves changing from greens to reds, burgundies, yellows, and bright oranges, making the bluffs look like a big bowl of fruit loops. I head out to the local pumpkin farms and look for the perfect variety of pumpkins, squash, and gourds to set along my front steps. Later the squash and pumpkins will get cooked and pureed to make winter soups.
Some of my favorite pumpkins and gourds.
Fall colors turning on our bluffs.
Putting up that last of the garden harvest for winter, and getting ready for apples and pumpkins, is a sure sign that autumn is coming.
As the days get shorter and cooler, I feel the nesting setting in, and I pull out my favorite oversize sweatshirts and set out quilts on the couches. Candles are lit throughout the house and soups remake their appearance.
Winter
I don’t know about anyone else, but I get downright giddy when the first snowflakes start to fly.
Laying down at night under my apple tree.
Thinking about the first winter snow to arrive, reminds me of when I was on the college swim team and one of the girls had never seen snow. During practice, she realized it was snowing and jumped out of the pool and ran through the double doors outside, of course we all joined her in the celebration and only returned when our coach threatened us back to the pool.
Every year I have to make at least one snow angel in the fresh falling snow. I will continue to do this until I am too old to get back up. Not going to think about that though!
Funny story. Last week I was hiking in the bluffs and a work crew was revamping an area that noxious weeds had taken over and restoring the hillside to its natural habitat. After this kind fellow finished telling me about their project, I told him, right over by that tree I made a snow angel. He said, “When you were a kid?”. I said, “No, last winter.” I don’t think he thought 62-year-old women should still be making snow angels by the look he gave me. I told him, you should never stop making snow angels, and continued on with my hike.
My snow angel behind the tree. 🙂
Every winter our park by the Mississippi hangs thousands of lights, Santa and his reindeer appear along with a fire for smore fixings, cocoa, and an ice-skating rink. I pace, waiting for the display to be lit up in all its glory.
When the city is ready to throw on the switch, people gather at the park and the celebrations starts off with a firework display over the river (we never miss a reason to have fireworks here) and when the distraction of the fireworks ends everyone turns around to the park, to see it ablaze with the most spectacular display of lights that is met with applause and a bringing in of Christmas season.
Rotary Lights at the park.
The changing of the seasons parallels with the changing of our own seasons. I now have left the season of raising my children and have entered the season of self-exploration. My years here on Earth are winding down and I want to enjoy time in nature and exploring the creative world that sometimes got put on the back burner. I am heading out of grieving an empty house, to exploring my creative endeavors and nature and a bit slower life-style.
So, I leave you with a sweet song:
Thinking about my favorite things, has me humming, My Favorite Things, sung by Maria, Julie Andrews, to the Von Trapp children during a thunderstorm, in the movie, The Sound of Music. “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens….”
The Sound of Music | “My Favorite Things” Lyric Video | Fox Family Entertainment – YouTube: The Lightening Bugs Are Here!