Round Up

Round Up.  No, I’m not at a Dude Ranch, I’ve been out spraying all of the weeds growing between the bluestone tiles.  Yes, the last couple of days, I’ve been working in the garden trimming back vines and perennials and raking flower beds.  The butterfly bushes are sporting all green leaves, the clematis is in bud, the bulbs have broken through the ground, and the perennials are dressed in several inches of new growth.  Clearly there is some confusion.

I remember the pansies were in bloom last January, but the entire garden didn’t look like spring had sprung.  This 50-degree weather has the neighbor children pulling the cattail  heads apart and spreading the white fluff on the ground for snow.

Where is winter?  Where is my chance to hibernate by the fire with a good book?  Ecclesiastes promises to everything there is a season….  I live in Illinois.  We have four seasons.  One of them is missing.  Is this a case for Miss Marple?

Not all of this is bad.  Yesterday Bob and I had the opportunity to chat with almost all of the neighbors.  We get lonely for them in the winter when we all huddle in the warmth of our homes.  We even discovered there’s a new dog on the block.

Still, there is just something not quite right about gardening in January.  In the Midwest, this is the time for daydreaming, perusing seed catalogs, and finally planning the riotous beauty to flower in the summer.  It’s the most important time for the gardener, and she shouldn’t be holstering a pruning tool while she’s doing it!

I say enough of this global warming, El Nino, shifting currents or normal variability.  I want cold.  I want snow.  I want winter.  Have you found it yet, Miss Marple?