I am having flashbacks to my childhood in Queens, NY.
Living in Florida I don't get to experience seasons in the traditional sense of the word. We DO have seasons in the sunshine state, they just aren't "normal" seasons. Unlike the North East you can not rely on the trees and flowers or the temperature of the air to tell you what the month is. Florida has Snow Bird season . . . November to May, Rainy season . . . June to August,
Hurricane season . . . June to December, Tourist season . . . June to August, (this is different from Snow Bird season because this is when people from all over the world come to vacation for a week or two as opposed to the Snow Birds who come to nest for several months).
You can always tell it's summer in Florida because there is a LOT less traffic just as you can always tell its Snow Bird season because the increased volume of cars are driven by idiots.
Having been a Native New Yorker I know about the REAL seasons . . . Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall. I always loved Autumn with the smell of burning leaves and the cooler weather heralding in all those wonderful holidays. I DID NOT like raking leaves or shoveling snow and that is a big reason why I now reside in Flor-i-DUH !
So, this year it is a treat to be here in Upper Michigan experiencing New York style weather but in a much more relaxed fashion. Well, not really considering we have been working on this property since we got here two weeks ago. It is a wonderful place to be in the Spring and Summer. Wonderful warm days and cool nights, so far at least. It did get up to 86 degrees yesterday but being up on a bluff from Lake Michigan there is usually a nice cool breeze to blow away all the mosquitos, flies, gnats and other random insects that one finds in the country. I did not have to deal with any of those in NY or FL but it's a small annoyance to put up with compared to all the beauty of this place.
Today The Man and I came outside around 10:00 and worked on pruning some of the many apple trees after cutting the grass on the far side of the house and sawing down two raggedy shrubs that he has wanted to be rid of for quite some time. I have to give The Man a LOT of credit for doing all that he does considering the fact that he can't breathe. He puts his oxygen tank in the trailer that's hooked to the back of his ride on mower. The oxygen hose is long enough to reach to the drivers seat so he can ride all over the place without dropping dead from asphyxiation. I know I joke about The Man but I do think if my lungs were as lousy as his I would just be sitting in a chair for the rest of my life waiting to die. At the moment I have sent him inside to the air conditioned humidity free bedroom to take a rest after all he did this morning. (P.S. Humidity here is a joke, if it is 57% The Man thinks it's awful . . . He has never spent a summer in Florida!)
After we finished all he could manage for the morning we came and sat in our new Zero Gravity Chairs that I bought for him for Father's Day. (I wanted them but Father's Day was a good excuse for me to purchase them. Got to LOVE the internet ! Order it one day and it's here 3 days later!)
I dragged the chairs onto the lawn under the huge old maple tree next to the house, got the man a bottle of water and made some bologna sandwiches for a picnic in the shade. The birds are chirping, the breeze is blowing, and very best of all the air is filled with the smell of Lilacs !!!!!!!!!
As a kid in NY we had a huge Lilac bush next to my house. Every year I couldn't wait for the Lilacs to blossom and fill the air with the most wonderful perfume. To this day I can't smell Lilacs without being instantly transported to my childhood. If I close my eyes I am eight years old, playing outside in my yard while my mom did what ever moms do. I would be entertaining myself for hours, probably with a pink Spalding ball or a piece of chalk all the while being blanketed with the wonderful smell of these beautiful purple flowers.
But it gets even better . . . Because when the Lilacs bloom so do the Lily of the Valley !! If ever there was a flower to compete with my beloved Lilacs it is Lily of the Valley. These little white bell shaped blossoms popped up all around our tiny house in Queens where I would check on them every day to see if the little bells were opening up yet. Once they started to open I would make bouquets full of purple Lilacs and tiny white Lily of the Valley. I would ask my mom for a jar and bring my fragrant blossoms into the house where their scent would fill all the rooms of our tiny home. When I married Husband I wanted my bridal bouquet to be Lilacs and Lily of the Valley but my mother thought I was nuts and so I had who knows what. All I remember is that my bouquet was all white. Boring !!!!
Fast forward to raising my family in Miller Place, NY. I just talked with my daughter, Keri and I was telling her what I was doing, sitting here under the tree with the smell of Lilacs in the air. She reminded me we had Lilacs and Lily of the Valley in our back yard when she and her brothers were growing up. I had totally forgotten that but she said she can not smell either of these flowers without having flashbacks to her childhood. Like mother Like Daughter !
So it seems that God has brought me full circle from my childhood years to what ever years I happen to be in now. I know I was fidgety right after I first got up here and all I could think about was getting back to my house in Florida. The Lilacs and Lily of the Valley have cured that and I am more than content to be here in this beautiful place where I don't have to put up with temperatures in the 90's and 300% humidity. Add to that the hurricane type rain that seems to be hitting South Florida and I am thinking I may spend the entire summer up here.
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