I am not a girly-girl. I’ve never treated myself to a manicure, I have less interest in shoes than most men, and my blow dryer last saw action several months ago when I removed one those flashy stickers some companies like to plaster all over their products. And yet.
And yet I am all about rainbows and butterflies and chirping birds and, yes, flowers. Not on t-shirts or binders or anything plastic and decorative, you understand. Just in reality, in this dimension.
Which is why I’m loving this summer so very much. Flowers are everywhere, blatantly growing and spreading and blooming. Three volunteer rosebushes sprouted in my vegetable garden, globe mallows are sweeping up and down the hillsides, and wild irises are grinning like lunatics in the mountain sunshine. It’s an obscene rainbow of blossoms carpeting everything outside of town except the rocks and asphalt. It’s like the Disney Channel, except no princesses.
What’s great about flowers, beyond the fact that they are nice-looking and they usually smell good and they stand still when I try to take pictures of them, is that they make no pretense whatsoever. They are all about the pollination, their petals and perfumes and colors brashly yelling, “Come and get it!” to any passing insects. It’s hard not to admire such honesty, especially when packaged so prettily.
Alas (if one can use such a word in 2009) this year the ridiculous abundance that overtook the local flowership completely skipped every fruit tree I know and love. Our neighbor’s apricot, which hangs halfway into our backyard, always produces enough to make any self-respecting fruit-lover sick to her stomach. This year, though? Only leaves. The plum tree? Nothing. Peaches? Not a one.
Only the Bing cherry in our front yard deigned to bring forth anything remotely edible – lots and lots of gorgeous cherries, swinging merrily in the early summer breeze. No doubt they were delicious, too. I wouldn’t actually know, you see, since the birds cleaned off the branches exactly one day before I planned my harvest. They did look yummy, though, plump and juicy and deep, sweet red.
Hrm. Now that I think about it, I take back what I said above about liking birds. Greedy little suckers. Flowers, though. Those I still adore. And rainbows and butterflies, of course. And once our trees start making fruit the way God and the garden center that sold them intended, I’m sure I’ll start liking them again, too. Check back next July, and I’ll let you know.
Obligatory flower photo. This one’s in our front yard.
I am very disappointed to hear about the lack of plums and peaches!! …I do have to say that I may be even less girly than you are (although I have had a pedicure a few times, and love them), and I LOVE flowers. The real ones, of course. I would love to see some of your mountain flower pictures!
So sad about the fruit trees! I loooove cherries. I think I’d have been tempted to get out my beebee gun! (Just kidding, of course). At least you have the flowers to admire.
I’m pretty girly–and I do love my flowers, and fruit trees, and rainbows . . .
😀
I’m not that girly either. 🙂
I really loved this post, esp. the line with “obscene rainbow”. Great wording!
That’s so cool how you have fruit trees! Ours have yet to blossom.
I just made a cherry pie the other day. Yum. Have fun with those. 🙂
@Katie – At least you wear makeup! 😉 And, yeah, I can definitely share the mountain photos, though I have tons of them so I’ll have to narrow them down first!
@Dara – If only I had actually seen the birds! But I didn’t; one morning the cherries were there, and the next they were all gone. Otherwise I never would have let those birds near – though I would have just gone over an waved my arms at them like a lunatic or something to scare them away.
@Alyson – And the girly thing totally works for you! I often wish I were more girly, but I just like comfort too much. *sigh*
@Jessica – Thanks! I have fun playing around with word choice. I swear half the time it takes me to write a blog post is actually spent just playing around with the words I’ve already written!
Love your photo! I’ve been noticing the flowers as I walk my dog. Bing cherries have been really cheap now by us — nice and plump and sweet. I’ve been eating a lot. All the fruits are delicious.
Oh, those rotten birds! lol Lovely flower tho.
I love flowers too! And a cherry tree? That’s vera cool 😉 Hopefully next year you’ll be faster than the birds. We planted a garden this year and you’re right, we have to keep those pesky birds out of the way!
One of my biggest reasons for loving flowers are the photos and the fragrance! At least if you didn’t get much fruit, you still had plenty of photo op time. The picture you shared looked fabulous. =)
@Edie – Thanks! And, yeah, at least we’ve been able to get Bing cherries for cheap since *some* people didn’t lose all theirs to the birds! I was just excited because it was the first year this tree produced fruit. Next year, I guess…
@Kristen – LOL! Yes, rotten birds indeed.
@Katie – I think I’m going to use netting next year. I hear that can help, and then maybe I won’t have to pick the cherries before they’re ready just so I can get them before the birds. Am crossing my fingers that it works.
@Erin – Tell me about it! I always stop to smell flowers when I’m out for a walk, and they’re the reason I splurged on my fancy macro lens for my camera.