FAVORITE SEASONS

What’s your favorite season?

 

I love them all for a lot of reasons. Western Oregon winters are fairly mild, most of the time.(that said we did get ten years worth of snow this winter.) There isn’t a lot but it’s there. There’s maybe six weeks from the first of December to mid January that’s the darkest. We often have crocuses peeking through by the end of January. The Lady Scarlet day lily never really went down this winter. All of the day lilies are up. I guess they have to get going because they start blooming in May. The willows are turning green, the daffodils and forsythias are coming up. It’s the beginning time.

 

Summer, ah summer. Everything bursts into exuberant color and abundance. There are so many shades of green this time of year. The garden is growing. You can see the fruits and vegetables coming on. There is nothing like a fresh, northwest strawberry, eastern Oregon and Washington apples or peaches. And don’t forget those Hermiston watermelons.  It’s the full, rich time. And we have short winters and really we have short summers. We do have long springs and falls.

 

Fall comes on. It’s time to can vegetables and hit the local produce suppliers every couple of weeks or so. We get fall color but it doesn’t come all at once. The colors go in about the same order as the leaves come out. Willows and dogwoods turn first and the maples are usually the last.

 

The gardens get tucked in and mulched. It’s quieter now. Cooler, damper, the winding down time. A time to remember the year that’s past and start looking for sprouting crocuses.