That Season between Winter and Summer

I know there used to be a season between winter and summer. Between snow on the ground and 29 degrees  and daytime highs of 85, wool hats and sun hats.

It was the season of love! It was a season of birdsong and tulips and daffodils! It was a season of fresh scents and mucking about in the garden. It was a season of lettuce and spinach and greens and peas. It lasted between six and ten weeks.

But alas, it seems to be no more. This year we went straight from winter to summer. Oh yes, the birds came through as usual, though the early ones came in the snow and the rest came to fully leafed trees and lush green grass. I hung up the fuchsia basket by the front door and within an hour a hummingbird was on it. Where did he come from?

We’re enjoying some great summer thunderstorms, great deluges followed by a brief cooling off before the heat and humidity return the next morning. We barely got the screens in the windows! This morning, the weatherman actually said (as if it was a good thing) we can expect July temps for the rest of the week. What?

The asparagus has bolted, and after only three little harvests it is woody and already turning fernlike. This lovely flowering plant is supposed to be a michilli cabbage for making kimchee, big, crispy napa heads with wide, white stalks. I am going to sauté the leaves tonight with some beans, and that’s it. 

rhubarb

The rhubarb, that was a tight little brain just three weeks ago is flowering. It didn’t even wait for the strawberries. The lettuce is bolting and wilting. I started the peas inside early to try to get a good crop  before it got too hot. They are growing up the fence, but who knows if we’ll get peas.

You know who loves the summer? Weeds, that are coming up in giant clumps. And mosquitoes. They are biting, too.

The beans are sprouting, and the cucumbers and summer squash– everything is rushing to catch up to the season. As for the cool weather crops, I guess we can hope for a nice, long, moderate fall.