Well, the pollen is flyin', as the farmers say, so it's three weeks to cuttin'. Emily's childhood friend Xinia was here today and sat at the supper table sneezing and watery-eyed. I on the other hand have stuffed sinuses and coughed all day.
This time of year always has the feel of something big coming. The air is still a bit chilly and damp, everything looks heavy and green, the grass is almost as tall as I am, with those crucial heads forming on top. And then one day you glance across the field and see the railroad tracks through a yellow haze, and you know the pollen is flyin'. And the rush of harvest is comin'.
(By the way, you're not a genuine farmer around here unless you drop your g's. You also have to talk really loud. "THAT RYEGRASS IS ABOUT READY FOR CUTTIN!" as Paul's grandpa used to say.)
One of these days summer will be here in a warm golden glow and in a complete reversal of the other 8 months of the year, it won't rain for weeks on end. Sprinklers will tick tick tick on gardens and soon the wonderful smell of harvest will fill the air and slow-moving combines in a cloud of dust will be silhouetted against the setting sun and hungry, dusty warehouse men will collapse on the couch at the end of the day and I will drive to town to load up on groceries with the windows down and the sunshine and smells wafting all around.
I love summer in Oregon.
(It actually used to be called Oregong, you know, but the farmers had no patience with that and now it's "Orygun.")
(kidding)
But right now it's miserable, with the pollen flyin' for a couple more weeks, with me puffin' on my albuterol inhaler and people like my SIL Bonnie goin' in for their cortisone shots so they can survive.
Quote of the Day:
"One of them stinks and the other one falls apart."
--me, when Amy asked what's the difference between these two (garage sale) vacuum cleaners of ours. The children thought it was QOTD worthy so I obliged them. yes, maybe we are a bit too frugal. . .
That one particular paragraph about summertime made me feel a little woozy and drunk -- summertime in western Oregon! It's here and then it's gone and it's hard to believe we ever had dry brown lawns and nights sleeping without covers.
ReplyDeleteLet me also add: the smell of ripe blackberries baking in the sun; the screams of children playing in freshly filled, ice cold swimming pools; the tops of your feet alternately burning and cooling as you sit on the porch steps, moving them back and forth between sunny and shady spots; bats fluttering around as the night falls, just as the mosquitoes finally drive you indoors to eat cobbler and ice cream; tucking sticky, sunwarmed, worn out children into bed.
Hope all goes well (and profitably) at harvest time.
Get rid of the vacuum cleaners! In my opinion, the two most important items for a newlywed couple to invest in are a good bed and a good-working vacuum cleaner! Life goes so much better with a good night's sleep and when you have the proper tools for the job!(I know you're long past tbe newly-wed stage, but the advice still holds!) ~ribbit98
ReplyDeleteOh, I would love to be there in three weeks, on one of those slow moving combines.
ReplyDeleteI, too, love our "world class summers", as George Taylor, a well-known local climatologist describes them. SG
ReplyDeleteI just bought a brand new vacuum for the first time in years, it doesn't stink or blow out dust when you turn it on! I feel like a queen when I clean! I can completely relate to the "it doesn't stink or fall apart" comments you heard from the family! jen
ReplyDelete