“All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray.
I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day.
I’d be safe and warm if I was in L.A.;
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.”
—The Mamas and The Papas, California Dreamin’
Dear Clients and Friends,
It’s nice to live in a house that is perched on top of a hill. When I open the shutters in my bedroom each morning, I look into the treetops and down into my back garden, which stretches out on the hill below me. There is most often a breeze, sometimes a stiff wind, that brings sounds to my little house—church bells on Sundays, the clackety–clackety–clackety of the train on its tracks, the sounds of the high school marching band playing on football game nights. The breeze brings the smell of honeysuckle and magnolia in the summer, and the warning smell of snow in the winter. It’s gentle in spring and fall, and often brutal in the summer and winter, ushering in storms from the west. After 18 years in this place, I’ve come to know the wind here very well, by how it feels, smells, and from which direction it is blowing. It tells me the weather and what to expect. It tells me the seasons by its sound in the trees. In early spring it is fresh; in the summer, it blows from the south and ushers in the humidity. Right now, it is blowing down the last of the browned leaves, and it is trying to make up its mind, as it heads into winter. Soon, a strong, icy wind will blow from the northwest, and I’ll know the seasons are changing, once again, leading me closer to the warm seasons I love. It’s the season to slow down, take stock, and look forward to new beginnings.
Next story > Preparing Our Gardens for Winter
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