Weather totally makes or breaks my day, at least to begin with. When I get up and see a morning star, I know it is clear and not raining. This is good for me, a gardener and horticulturalist at a nursery. So of course I wish upon this star for many things and one of them being that it will be a nice day. For someone from the Great Pacific Northwest this doesn’t mean seventy and sunny but more like fifty and slightly overcast, yet with blue sky and the sun appearing now and then. This is perfect outdoor working/gardening weather, not too hot to get sweaty and sunny enough so you can see what you are doing and stay cheerful. Today is a day like that, morning star, wish, lovely pink sunrise that the gas station girl and I concurred was a good sign (in spite of “pink sky in morning sailors take warning”), nice drive to the nursery and now blue sky full of many colors and kinds of clouds. There is a slight breeze blowing and all this fresh air that has been coming in lately has an invigorating quality to it as well. I suppose all this could change in an instant but for now it puts me in a great mood, improves the my thoughts and thus my work (which I love) and if this happens for some or all of the folks today don’t you think the world will be just a bit better for it?
The weather, what we talk about around here, is crisp, clear, sunny, blue skies and downright cold. I don't know why but it making me a little cranky and maybe it is not the weather but the frozen pipe I have going to the washing machine and just the general concern about plants, animals and all of us in this cold weather. On my way to work I was thinking about what could bring me out of this funk, no need to get crotchety at this glorious time of year. I looked up and saw the hill, Mount Pisgah, with a lovely pink glow. I could not meditate something this great no matter how long I sat. Ahh, I can arrive with a little better cheer.
This has been an interesting tree week for me, as in trees going down. In the nursery business we are into planting trees but there are times when trees have to come down as well. The first tree to come down was a Grand Fir (Abies grandis) in front of our rural home near the road. This tree had suffered since the road was paved in 1994 and recovered a bit but never returned to its original vigor. It had been on our list of things to do for quite some time and the day came that we had the time and energy to do it. The fragrance of Grand Fir is quite intense and smells like the Christmas season, I love it. The trunk was cut up for fire wood and will heat our home for a winter. For me there is always some emotion of sadness when a tree goes. The Grand Fir went and ready to take the place was a Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziessi) I planted a few years ago.
A couple of week's ago I notice that the Swainson's Thrush no longer were singing their melodious, melancholy song in the twilight, I noticed the crickets started their chirping which usually unnerves me as I know it signals the downhill slide of summer into autumn. And then the almost unbearable hot weather came and all thought of anything like fall or winter were far, far away. When it cooled off again, I added another blanket to the bed and put on a sweatshirt in the mornings. And then with an almost imperceptible blink it changed, that leaf that yellows and falls, the slight droopiness of the plants turning the corner from vigorous to heading for fall look, and then the great thing that happens; a marked rise in energy. This is the ability to do things that a week ago seemed to take too much thinking and work to even want to attempt, now can get done in an hour or so. I noticed in our weekly meeting everyone was coming up with great and very useful and creative ideas, and was willing to implement them. I love autumn and the new energy it brings, and acknowledge the sadness that comes when we realize that the summer we wait for was circling around into the natural rhythm of our world. Jewish New Year is in September and it seems so appropriate to me to have a new beginning when you have the energy to match it.
PHN Growers Blog 
