SPRING TIME IN WESTERN NEW YORK – ROCHESTER IN PARTICULAR

Rochesterians , myself included, so look forward, with great anticipation, to Springtime. Winter seems so long and drawn out. As soon at the temperatures start to reach 45 degrees, everyone breaks out the shorts and sandals.

This milestone could happen in April, but it’s not to be trusted, because snow may appear out of nowhere at any time. I remember having snow on Mother’s Day once.

Rochester has 3 seasons: Spall (combination of Spring and Fall), Summertime and Wintertime. Spring is so short as to be almost un-noticeable. We go from snow plows to planting peas in the blink of an eye. Fall is a bit longer. Lasting from about the end of September to the end of October.

I must confess that I do remember golfers out on the links at Thanksgiving time but that is a huge fluke. Oftentimes, there’s snow on the ground in November. November is the beginning of winter and it lasts until mid to end of April. Followed by the “S & P” of Spall, which is like a flash of lightening.

All our Spring flowers make their seasonal appearance in May. Tulips, forsythia, lilacs, the flowering trees (including fruit trees), magnolia and dogwoods. If the weather is too hot, these Springtime bloomers bow their heads and wilt. Here’s what’s blooming in my yard.

Pictures: in order of appearance.....Quince Bush, Forsythia, Dogwood Tree and Lilacs 

Summertime is a riot of all kinds of flowers and fruit trees.  Summertime’s calender is mid to end of May, June, July and August and about half of September.  Right now in early May, the temps are hovering around 70. June normally is 80, July could be 90’s, and August starts to think about Spall but still has temps from 75 to 85.

Pumpkins, other squashes, and apples come in the “ALL” part of Spall (2^nd half of September and October). 

Rochester is famous for its lilacs and the spectacular park (HIGHLAND PARK) designed by the Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed Central Park in NYC and the gardens on the Biltmore Estate in NC.

  

 The Lilac Festival is an art, music, food and flora festival hosted annually in early May in Highland Park in Rochester, New York. It is the oldest festival of its kind in North America, drawing spectators from all over the globe. Highland Park possesses a huge collection of lilacs, featuring more than a thousand bushes and hundreds of different varieties. Early May is the season that lilacs are blooming in Rochester.

The festival was informally started in 1898 when 3,000 people came to the park one Sunday in May to see the lilacs. Since then the number of viewers has grown to over 500,000 and the festival plays out over the course of ten days. The modern day festival is started with a parade and frequently hosts concerts and other attractions during the week. The Highland Park arboretum is toured free of charge and is open to all visitors. The fields surrounding the arboretum host a myriad of vendor's tents and food stands. 

https://www.facebook.com/RochesterLilacFestival

Christmas Traditions

One of the Christmas traditions that I share with almost everyone on the planet is the Christmas Tree. This year, mine was a bit unorthodox. I am in a position of getting familiar with a "new normal". I just was not excited about pulling out all sorts of decorations from their hiding places (for just me to enjoy) then having to put them all away again in a few weeks. But I still was up for Christmas. I wanted to get carried away with all the other traditions I was used to - like seeing the gingerbread houses made by locals at the Eastman House Museum, going to the craft sales, sacred presentations of the Christmas story, watching the old movies, etc., etc.

So you might say, my home was very sedately "Christmassy". My fireplace mantle has a snow people panorama. Many snow people standing on vintage lace "snow" in a tiny forest of evergreens under a big rusty star. Most of these snow people were hand made by me. I love this scene so much, I'm temped to leave it up all year.

For my unorthodox tree, I made cupcake papers trees that I saw on Craft Gossip. I did put my tiny presents under them. Fortunately, I did receive tiny presents (gift cards and earrings).

Another lovely tradition  is the Secret Santa that we have on the Christian Artist team on etsy (CAST). Those who want to participate fill out a questionaire about themselves, their wishes and dreams. A "director" pairs up the participants. I gifted a sister from the midwest and I received from a sister in the state right next door to my own state. But some sent and received gifts from the UK, from Australia, Canada and other hinder parts of the planet. And some from right next door. Amazingly, the gifts were perfect and such a blessing to both sender and receiver.

My gift arrived from a sister who's had some health problems recently and was also greatly affected by hurricane Sandy, therefore, unable to shop outside the home. I'm sure she has no idea how much her gift blessed me and how precious it is to me. She purchased from another CAST sister a pair of pearl earrings. I'm sure she didn't know my name means "pearl".

The formation of this gem involves a great amount of irritation and pressure happening inside that little mollusk before a beautiful pearl is formed. I love to think about heaven's gates being formed by this jewel and how our Savior always changes for good whatever He touches.

Here are the beautiful earrings I received from my Secret Santa (you know santa means holy).

One final tradition for the Christmas season in my neck of the woods is a White Christmas. Everyone was longing for it. We had spring like weather until just a couple weeks ago..............then, voila!!!

A Christmas Card sort of Christmas