Spring started half an hour ago...and depending on whom you ask, it's either cause for celebration or grumbling. If you are allergic, pollen-madness is underway. If you hate cold weather, it's a safe bet the majority of it is gone for months. For gardeners, it's the beginning of the best time of year! And if you're in love, it doesn't matter what the season is.
I'm still adjusting to having a relative living on the other side of the world (Australia) where everything is reversed. My nephew and his wife in Melbourne are saying goodbye to the warmth and preparing for the arrival cold weather. The furthest South I ever lived was Jacksonville Florida, which is on the line between the tropics and the moderate zones. The leaves fall, but temperatures rarely go below freezing. The approach of the Summer in the South gets me thinking again about this region before air-conditioning. I know all about the architecture...the dog-trot designs etc. Doesn't matter. Those were simply tougher people back then, at least compared to those of us now who run from air conditioned car to air conditioned office to air-conditioned home each Summer.
I am so glad spring is here. I have already been gardening for months.
ReplyDeleteI've already planted kale, turnip greens, strawberries, onions, garlic, a peach tree and two plum trees in the ground. I've had seeds sprouted and in sunny windows all over the house since Jan. I'll be glad when Good Friday has come and gone so I can plant my other goodies in the ground. I have just about every regular southern veggie imaginable up from seed and ready to be planted in the garden.
Really not looking forward to summer though. We had to give up air conditioning last year because we could not afford it. It takes a little while but you get used to it. Used lots of big box fans blowing in or out different windows. What I realized after I stopped bitchin' about it being so damn hot was that my generation is a bunch of selfish pansies for the most part. Our demand for refrigerated air is a huge drain on our energy resources.
I'll try and remember that mantra come the end of May or so :)
I suppose I could give up AC but it would be tough! One year we were without power for three days and I was ready to pay a zillion dollars for a hotel room...but refugees from the coast had them all booked.
ReplyDeleteTo be perfectly honest about it giving up the AC was MISERY...sort of like what I used to imagine Hell would feel like when I was a kid. And really, since I live in a mobile home with no AC, how much hotter could Hell actually be?
ReplyDeleteBut after a few weeks I got used to it. Sort of. This year we will have bigger fans and more of them.