Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 64

G Are The Yellows Mellow?
Text and photos by Elizabeth Hunter
Mountain
Garden
Some, Not All
THE COLOR HAS LIFE THROUGHOUT THE GROWING YEAR, AND BEYOND.
IS THERE ANY BETTER TIME than midwinter
to reflect on all the ways that
our gardens light up our lives? Our
forced subsistence on brilliant photographs
in the annual flood of seed
catalogs is thin gruel compared to
those earliest promises of things to
come: the foolish daffodils that can't
seem to wait for the weather to
warm, that push green spearpoints
through the soil in January and
February, and open their insouciant
blooms just in time to be buried by
March snows.
If the daffodils are blooming, can
forsythia be far behind? No, it cannot.
Why do its blooms make me
think of strings of tiny lanterns?
Maybe it's the way they're strung
along still-barren stems. Maybe
because the forsythia in my yard so
often glows through fog stealing up
the hillside from the river. Like the
daffodils, forsythia can get too early a
jump on the season, its candles
snuffed by killing frost. But unless (or
until) it does, our winter-starved eyes,
weary of the dreary competition of
the grays versus the browns, feast on
yard after bedraggled yard transformed
by the presence of these old,
reliable standbys you don't have to
do much for and can afford to forget
about when the growing season kicks
in. They cheer us up - and signal that
it's time, if you haven't already, to
start some seeds on the windowsill.
Yellows bookend the blooming
year, in garden and natural world.
Robert Frost was right that nature's
first green is gold. Stop by woods on
a warm spring morning to take in the
soft light emanating from tiny spicebush
blossoms. Even before migrating
thrushes strip their twigs of
scarlet fruit in fall, the buds for next
64 | BlueRidgeCountry.com
Above: Tiny green buds appear on the spicebush even before its bright red
berries have been gobbled down by migrating thrushes. The spicebush is one of
spring's earliest bloomers, lighting up the woods with tiny green-gold blooms
before the shrub leafs out.
Below: Black-eyed Susans bloom abundantly, and for weeks, in mid-summer,
sometimes lingering into fall.

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Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015

Letters
From the Editor & Digital Help Guide
Mill Creek Stories
Creature Feature
The Hike
Great Buys
Mountain Report
Country Roads
Creature Feature
Festivals & Events
The Curios: Our Annual Compendium of the Strange
North Georgia: A Foodie Haven
Why We Travel: The Photoessay
The 2015 Blue Ridge Country Travel Guide: A Year of Experiences
The Weekend: Harpers Ferry and Western Maryland
The Old Stone Chimney
Cabin in the Woods: Fiddler’s Roost
Mountain Garden
Guest Column: Author Stephanie Jeffries
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Intro
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 2
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 3
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 4
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Letters
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - From the Editor & Digital Help Guide
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 7
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Mill Creek Stories
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Creature Feature
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - The Hike
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 11
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Great Buys
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Mountain Report
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 14
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 15
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Country Roads
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 17
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 18
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Creature Feature
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Festivals & Events
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 21
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 22
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - The Curios: Our Annual Compendium of the Strange
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 24
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 25
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 26
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - North Georgia: A Foodie Haven
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 28
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 29
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 30
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 31
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 32
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 33
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Why We Travel: The Photoessay
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 35
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 36
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 37
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - The 2015 Blue Ridge Country Travel Guide: A Year of Experiences
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 39
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 40
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 41
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 42
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 43
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 44
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 45
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 46
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 47
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 48
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 49
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 50
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 51
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 52
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 53
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - The Weekend: Harpers Ferry and Western Maryland
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 55
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 56
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 57
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 58
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 59
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - The Old Stone Chimney
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Cabin in the Woods: Fiddler’s Roost
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 62
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 63
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Mountain Garden
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - 65
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Guest Column: Author Stephanie Jeffries
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2015 - Cover4
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