Early Harvest 2012

2012 will be the year of "early".  The weather change to Spring came early and that shaped the planting of gardens early and now while we are in late May, the early harvest is upon up.  At least here in the southeast we are happily beginning to reap the reward of our planting from years past, and seeing early fruit from this springs planting.

A week ago I noticed through the netting over the blueberries that some big blue berries were ready to be picked. I did just that and had a small handful of the biggest ones I have grown.  A few had to be tasted right then but the rest made my breakfast special.

Yesterday morning early, I got in my golf cart and headed down to the raised beds to do some serious weed pulling.  Using my hoe I got things stirred up around the blue lake green beans and the tomato plants.  The green beans have promising white blooms on them and the tomato plants have golf ball size green tomatoes.  I have staked them to try to keep the branches from falling to the ground.  The stems on all of the  plants, cucumbers included, are sturdy and healthy looking.  As I started to drive back up to the house I glanced over at the blackberry patch and saw big black berries, so I just had to stop and pick them.  The picture shows how long the biggest one was.  I noticed that on the bush with the big ripe berries were some white blooms just starting the fruit process.  That looked strange to me, but a lot of things in gardening are strange this year.

It has been many years since I have seen berries as big as these.  I saw them on some bushes at the edge of the forest behind our home in Kentucky.  We were all so impressed with the size of them and they were the wild berries.  For my taste the wild ones are sweeter and the seeds are smaller, making them more desirable.  But, I will take ripe blackberries any way I can get them.  They are just wonderful with sugar and milk, in jam and jelly or just eaten out of hand.

Lady luck is with me so far this year in my garden.  Having an early spring is preferable to having a late one.  Especially when it brings rain to follow up the planting of seeds or plants.  The figs are about half size on my biggest tree and marble size kiwi are hanging from healthy branches. It usually is the first of August before the figs are ripe, but with this head start it may be the first of July.  The kiwi will not be ready for picking until the first frost this fall.  I have to be very watchful around that time or I will find myself trying to fight harsh winds to collect these fruits.

There is one drawback to having an early spring.  Does that mean an early fall and winter?  Last year after a long dry summer with very little success in my garden, we were hit with a colder than usual December.  So, it seems that something is pushing the seasons into earlier cycles.  Since I have no control over Mother Nature, I will have to adjust.  This spring  at least, the adjusting has been very pleasant.  It looks like I will be having enough from my harvest to put in my deep freeze.  There is nothing that can compare to going to the deep freezer and picking a large bag of frozen blue lake green beans to cook for my family when they come up to visit on cold winter days.

My Friends, the Trees

The outline of a tree against the sky attracts me as a thing of beauty.  I want to savor that beauty and look again and again to enjoy the pattern of its branches.

Fond memories of trees come back to me, beginning from my early childhood.  Our home was at the foot of a mountain in Kentucky.  The woods became my playground.  Huge grapevines fell from the branches of the trees and we could swing Tarzan fashion in childish delight.

 At a later time our home was beside the Cumberland River.  In our back yard a huge apple tree grew right beside the flowing water.  The tree took life from the water and gave back a generous supply of apples for youngsters to enjoy on any summer day. And enjoy we did, sitting on the big branch hanging over the water, with salt shaker in hand.

 Trees continued to fascinate me into college when I enrolled in a class in Dendrology. Many a week-end date was spent on a picnic in the woods searching for the uncommon Kentucky coffee tree.  Our teacher had promised us an automatic A, should we bring in a specimen from that rare tree.  I did not find it that year.  However many years later I did find several very near my sister’s home, but too late for that A.  I still have the book from that class.  It is the Whittlesey House Field Guide of trees of the Eastern United States and Canada, copyright 1942.

 I like to think that my two children learned to love trees from me.  As preschoolers in Maryland they used to watch with me a huge old oak tree which bridged our back yard with a forest of hardwoods.  After a damp day, as the bark began to dry out, lovely patterns of dark and light gray could be seen appearing on the sturdy trunk.  This visual barometer assured us that dampness was leaving and dryness was coming, so that outdoor play was not far away. That same tree harbored a family of redheaded woodpeckers.  We spent many happy times watching the babies hop about on the tree trunk before they made their first flight through the oaks and hickories.

 The leaf of a Gingko has always held my interest.  They originated in China. What makes them so interesting is that they are unique in nature.  All of the veins are parallel coming out from the stem in a fan like shape.  Back in Kentucky there was a mighty Gingko beside the post office in our town.  Wherever I go I look for these trees which are well adapted to urban conditions.  I found one on our playground at Dyer Elementary School in Lawrenceville, Georgia.   In the fall when the unusual leaves turn to a rich golden color, it is a standout specimen.  There is a row of them planted beside St. Paul’s Methodist church in Gainesville.  Also a row of them are planted in front of the J and J Grocery on Browns Bridge road.

 Where I now live, I have plenty of room for all the trees I could possibly want.  I really have to restrain myself when it comes to buying them, but I can always admire them as I travel around north Georgia, or simply look out of my windows.  One more thing needs to be said in tribute to this stationary, generous friend.  She gives us our very life when she takes our breath and sends it back as oxygen, ready to renew us once again.  So, how could we possibly live without our friends, the trees?  We could not, nor would I ever want to do so.

Putting Life On Hold

There are times in life when we are forced to stop everything and handle the problem at hand.  It may be an illness in the family, an illness of our own, or an external situation over which we have no control, but it interferes with us forging ahead with our own dream which is beckoning to us.  It happens all the time to each of us.  Some of the things that stop us cold may be fairly minor, but it can be something really major and could go on for years.  It may go on for so long that you forget it  was there in the first place.

If you need to post reminders it may not be all that life altering.  It may be a gentle, mental tugging that crops up from time to time and you just can't settle on a beginning.  I have heard of authors who have ideas for books but just cannot find time to get it off the ground.  When James Michener died, he was 91 and he had ideas for 30 books he wanted to write.  He did write enough to let us know he was great at his craft.

Winston Churchill made a speech during World War II, that inspired the nation of Great Britain to hang on and hang in to defeat the enemy, Nazi Germany.  It was October 29th, 1941 and he was visiting Harrow School after the Blitz.  The war was looking up a little for Great Britain.  The long remembered part "Never give in.  Never give in, never, never, never, never..."  was a rallying call to the people of Great Britain, to defend their country through some very bad times.

If you have a dream which has been pushed back until a better time, examine it again.  Perhaps it is finally doable.  Do something positive to get it moving again.  If it is a good idea, test it out to see if you are ready to go forward with it.  It just may be a very satisfying event waiting to happen in your life.  Be inspired by Winston Churchill, never give in, find a way to make your dream happen, at least give it a try.

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Concentric Circles

Imagine yourself inside of a circle surrounded by more circles.  Inside the inner circle with you, place your very closest friends.  In the next circle place long term friends who are there at different times and at different events in your life.  In the next circle, place acquaintances from various fairly recent events and depending upon how many friends you have the circles can continue for some time.

I imagine someone like Hillary Clinton has circles ad infinitum.  The people she meets as Secretary of State are world wide.  Yet, I feel certain that in her inner most circle she has some friends that go back to her childhood. Friends that she feels so trustworthy she could share anything with them.  These are the friends she would feel most comfortable with and with whom she has shared her deepest thoughts and dreams.

I feel sure that you have such a history with old friends.  I do, and I want to tell about one such lady.  Her name is Marian Weiler Maxwell.  She was born on the fourth of July in a small town in southeastern Kentucky.  I first met her when I was a new resident in this town, Harlan, Kentucky.  Not only did I know her from school, but also from the First Presbyterian church on Clover street.  Her mother was the organist at our church.  She was the quintessential southern lady, beautiful, reserved, quietly moving about in queenly fashion, elegant in every way.  Being in her presence made you want to slow down, calm down and be the best you could be.

On that fourth of July in 1926 she gave birth to a real fire cracker!  Marian used to say that fire crackers were set off under her bed and that was her entry into the  world.  She was her own person and early on excelled in the area of music.  I used to sit and watch her play the piano and yearned to be able to do that too.  However, we did enjoy other things together, starting with our nursery at church where my mother was the superintendent of the early childhood group.  Regretfully, I do not remember much about that.  My memories are of later times, like playing bob jacks on the sidewalk in front of my house, and playing  in the neighborhood, and good times with our mutual friends.

In those days we were free to put on roller skates and use the streets and sidewalks as our personal skating arenas.  We also made good use of another from of transportation, bike riding.  On many occasions we pedaled our bikes outside of town and out to a neighboring mining camp called Tways.  Once there we went into the big store and bought a cold drink of our choice.  I always chose chocolate milk and I do not remember what Marian preferred.  We would not be allowed to do that in today's world, but in a small town where everyone knew your family it was considered a safe thing to do.

Somewhere in my old photographs is a picture of us at Girl Scout Camp, Camp O' Cumberland, around 1936.  We swam, hiked trails and often went up to a big rock which overlooked the main road along the Cumberland river.  We had a lot of freedom to explore during those years.  One photo I cannot find, shows Marian climbing under a barbed wire fence with her skirt caught on the fence.  She is looking up and grinning at me.  She was adventurous and full of fun. 

In high school she was involved with the band but I was not.  In our family there was no extra money for music lessons so that was one thing we did not share.  We did share the disappointment of not being able to finish high school in our high school building, as it caught on fire.  So, we finished the school year at the big Baptist church on Mound Street.  After high school we went in different directions, and to different schools.  We would connect at times when we both were in town at the same time; and I was there for her wedding to Howard Maxwell, a tall handsome man of music.

Over the years we kept in touch sporadically but that friendship stayed intact.  We both were busy raising our families, she in Kentucky, me in Maryland.  When I did receive a letter from her I knew to expect her classic sign off, "Me". 

She came to Georgia when the Olympics were in Atlanta, but I did not get to visit then.  I knew she was still involved with music, playing her portable organ at horse shows and other events.  She planned to visit with me here in my home a few years ago and I was so looking forward to that reunion.  Alas, it never came about.  As she was driving through Lexington going south on I-75 she stopped for coffee at a roadside venue.  It was a windy day and her hat flew off.  She ran to catch it and fell, breaking her hip.  She spent a long time recovering from that awful fall.  So, we never got to have that reunion.
I know that we will always be friends of the inner circle.  I have a picture to prove it.  It is of her, in  our last year in high school.  She signed it forever love, to Rosie, "Me".  Look closely at her face.  You can see the mischief behind her eyes and in her smile.  That is how I remember her and always will.  She is quite ill now and receiving loving care under the watchful eye of her daughter, Beverly.  I feel sure she is still finding ways to express her music and greeting everyone with a smile and a twinkle in her eyes.

Early Garden

Here in the southeastern part of America, we are living in an unprecedented time of very early spring.  Gardeners were thrown into debate about planting now or waiting until given the official signal that no frost is in the future.

Being a risk taker, I chose to put my tomato plants in as soon as I saw them in the garden center.  I had such good luck with the Goliath in past years,  I chose two of them that were about 6" high and with several stems.  My partner in crime had prepared a great bed out back and heaped on the pine bark mulch.  All we had to do was rake out a spot, dig a hole and plop in the plant, cover with mulch and water.  Of course watching for the weather report is part of good gardening and that I did also.  When two nights in a row of 42 degree weather was predicted, I put a 5 gallon bucket over the plants to make sure the cold did not nip them.

I am happy to report that as of today I have several green tomatoes hanging on one of my plants.  The smaller plant has  plenty of blooms ready to come up with little green fruits also.  At the same time, I planted four burpless cucumber plants that my daughter had  sent to me.  They are thriving and growing extra leaves and were not covered at all on those cold nights.

Down in the raised beds the green beans are 3 to 5 inches tall and the cucumbers are only two leaves up on 1/2 inch stems.  The Lima beans in the middle bed have not come up at all and they were planted at the same time.  I am not sure what is happening to them, time will tell.

I used to have a good friend who prided himself on having the first red tomato in his neighborhood (about one mile from here).  One year he got a nice red tomato from the market and tied it to his biggest tomato plant.  He had a great sense of humor and that is only one example.  I really miss him and his gardening fun.  I do believe that he is up there on a cloud somewhere rooting for my tomato plants and the little green fruits that look so promising.