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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