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“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.”

The morning is a bit chilly, quite different from yesterday when we sat on the deck until 8 o’clock. It was still warm enough even when the sun was down. The pine pollen has turned my car from red to yellow-green. Here in the house I have two opened windows and the pollen has covered furniture and even the floors, but I don’t care. I like the cool air.

The cape has more scrub pine than any other trees. They are ugly trees with scraggy branches. Their bark looks old, wrinkly. My back and front yards have several pine trees. They don’t weather well. Every year the winter takes down a few more branches, and the last couple of years my landscaper has cut down a couple of tall, dead pine trees. When a pine tree dies, no needles remain to soften the look. It resembles the Halloween silhouette of a black tree with grabbing branches.

I like my pine trees despite their ugliness. They shade the yard. They give me a sense of privacy on the deck. At night, when the dog’s lights are triggered, they are tall, thin shadows across the yard. They are quintessentially Cape Cod. I guess the pollen is a small price to pay.

The cape fields are filled with wild flowers and berry-bearing trees. Closer to the water are the beach plum trees. In my younger, forage from the sea and land days, I used to pick beach plums to make jelly. The trees are not easy to find and every forager protects secret spots. Wild blueberry bushes give fruit to eat out of hand. I find not so many make it to my bucket. Along the sides of the road are flowers growing wild, spreading and multiplying themselves. One of my favorites is the thistle. I want to stop and dig a few for my garden, but I haven’t had the nerve.

In my front yard are three wild rose bushes. They flower once a year with small white flowers. The trees grow haphazardly and I’ve often caught myself on the thorny bushes. It seems the more you cut and trim the more they grow. Wild rose bushes are everywhere, and when they are in bloom, it always seems as if the cape is covered in white, delicate flowers.

This is an empty dance card week. I have laundry to do, Peapod to order and flowers and herbs to plant. Nothing else is planned except, of course, Gracie and I will have a dump run.

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17 Comments on ““I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.””

  1. Hedley's avatar Hedley Says:

    May 18, 2015 at 12:51 pm

    Thinking about the long weekend ? preoccupied by the division playoffs and the promotion and relegation battles ? Wondering if Joni Mitchell is still in a coma ?

    Set aside these things – for it is the week of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Live, maybe even by webcast, from Austria, its time for Boom Bang and Bang, Puppet on a String and Waterloo.

    First we must look at Ann Sophie, who will be representing the land of the Bochum Belle….yes this is Birgit’s contestant singing about Black Smoke – its got a good beat, I would like to give her one

    • Birgit's avatar Birgit Says:

      May 18, 2015 at 1:58 pm

      You had to dig it up, Hedley? Germany’s finest embarrassing plastic pop, the British contribution is at least funny. This year’s ESC will be terrible as always but like millions of Europeans I can’t help but watch it. Happy weekend and congratulations on your big family event!
      Now on to some (probably better) KTCC music…

      • Hedley's avatar Hedley Says:

        May 18, 2015 at 2:05 pm

        Birgit – don’t you have semi Finals starting tomorrow ? Is Germany automatically in to Saturday Night’s big final ?

        You will probably be slugging down Bochum’s finest beer and singing along

        Tomorrow, we must consider Christer’s entry

      • Birgit's avatar Birgit Says:

        May 18, 2015 at 2:39 pm

        Hedley, Germany doesn’t have to compete in the semi finals but musical quality is certainly not the reason. I’ll save my beer and TV time for the final. Looking forward to hear Sweden’s entry and hope to read Christer’s comment on it, ABBA-land is always good for a musical surprise.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      May 18, 2015 at 2:57 pm

      My Dear Hedley,
      I forgot it is the long weekend coming, with no new news I’m afraid it may be bad news about Joni, and I am not following the divisional playoffs so I am not even preoccupied with the news of the world.

      I wish I could see the finals-I understand sometimes the finalists are quite interesting!

  2. Christer.'s avatar olof1 Says:

    May 18, 2015 at 2:24 pm

    We had those pines where I grew up too and I always think they look so interesting. Forced by the winds from the ocean to look like that. Here we almost only have high pitch straight pines and even if they are beautiful it’s not the same. It is a nice pollen season here, very little yellow on the cars in the morning 🙂

    I’ve tried to find kernels from that beach plum but it seems almost impossible but then again, I don’t think it is hardy enough to grow here but most like,y where I grew up by the ocean. Thistles are beautiful! Too bad most of them are so thorny 🙂

    I do like my wild roses in my garden, especially the Redleaf rose (rosa glauca) and the good thing is thatit doesn’t spread by its roots 🙂

    Have a great day!
    Christer.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      May 18, 2015 at 3:11 pm

      Christer,
      There are huge amounts of pollen on my deck as well. My glass table is so covered it is no longer see through. I was just out there watering plants and the deck itself is so yellow.

      There are no beach plums near me. The ones I used to pick were by the ocean. They bloom in August.

      One of the wild rose bushes has grown up into a tree. It is lovely.

  3. Birgit's avatar Birgit Says:

    May 18, 2015 at 5:37 pm

    I hadn’t heard of beach plums before, they look interesting, – you never cease to learn when reading KTCC 🙂
    I love thistles, a big wild one blocks my garden path every summer but it looks so nice and majestic that I can’t cut it down.
    Strikes are blooming in this country: postal service, children’s daycare, some retail stores and -what a surprise- train strike number nine.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      May 18, 2015 at 6:07 pm

      Birgit,
      I think there are probably people away from the coast who haven’t seen them either. They are the elusive berries.

      I’m happy I’m introducing you to new things!

      No chopping them down for me either. Thistles are too pretty.

  4. Bob's avatar Bob Says:

    May 18, 2015 at 8:51 pm

    We’ve had so much rain the Bluebonnets should be popping up everywhere. I haven’t noticed them this year except back in April before the rains started. Maybe, like my terrible experience with house plants, too much water kills the plants.

    Today was mostly sunny and very warm. When I got into the car to drive home the air temperature was almost ninety degrees. There’s a chance of thunderstorms every day this week. Memorial Day weekend is the day the public swimming pools open. This year there is another week of May. I never go into the water until late June when the water temperatue gets warmer.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      May 18, 2015 at 9:06 pm

      Bob,
      I love your bluebonnets, and I hope they are just tardy bloomers this year.

      I was chilly enough I shut the window. It was only in the 60’s today. We are supposed to have some rain tomorrow-not much but I’ll take any.

      There are no outdoor public pools here. One high school has a pool as does the YMCA but both are inside. The motels, of course, all have pools.

      The ocean temperature is rising, but it won’t be warm enough for a while yet.

  5. Jay Bird's avatar Jay Bird Says:

    May 18, 2015 at 9:19 pm

    OMG! Beach plumb jelly!! I haven’t heard that in 50 years. My parents used to pick up a few jars when we went to the Cape. Practically every store and all roadside stands sold it. I don’t recall the taste, other than it was good.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      May 18, 2015 at 9:40 pm

      Jay,
      Roadside stands still sell jars of beach plum jelly, and I know my garden-vegetable store sells it and other locally made items and speciality bread.

      I haven’t had it in a while so I guess I’ll have to pick up a jar and remind you how it tastes!


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