I have to wonder if those using the phrase “stick season” to describe our current phase in Connecticut ever garden or have been outside lately.
That’s a sincere question. And if they have been outside, what has their mindset been? Because I’m not seeing the world in only gray and brown right now as I’ve seen far too many people lately imply is the reality of Connecticut right now.
You can find root vegetables, garlic, and kale still adding color to community gardens. Something that non-gardeners might not know: you plant garlic in autumn and don’t harvest it until summer.
While most rose flowers have succumbed to the cold, colorful rose hips remain.
Flowers here and there can be spotted outside in winter.
There’s still green to be seen. Rhododendrons that, I think, look mediocre most of the year are shining in January.
You don’t have to leave the sidewalk to glimpse berries. Here, they’re along a residential property. My favorites, though, are in the Capitol Avenue bioswale. They’re between the mistake of a parking lot and the roadway, and they’re absolutely thriving in that spot.
Look at the forest floor for moss and fallen branches.
Wait for the sun to hit just right, and remaining rose leaves light up.
All of the photographs in this post were taken in Hartford on January 1, 2024. None were edited to change color.
Richard
Kerri, I love this post. The array of beauty in our world is just amazing. The world could get along quite well without humans.
Stick Season, never heard of such absurdity. It sounds like a put down and that there is no beauty in “sticks” which many of us know is not true. Lots of beauty and variations in all the browns and greys. In the field next to my home there are large trees, one of them has Bittersweet decorating the branches and there is a holly bush with red berries. The meadow below is a carpet of green. What a scene when the sun is in the west and shines through the trees.
Stick Season, HA! Take a walk and you will see beauty everywhere, even among all of the “sticks.” I once knew a woman who went out to the fields and woods gathering “sticks”, amazing fall and winter sticks and made beautiful fall and winter arrangements. Sometimes you don’t even need to go far one just has to open up their eyes and begin including, leaving so-called labelers, experts, depressed lovesick song writer and old timers behind.
There is always something to do and many of us do it quite well.
A quick rundown of the “Sticks” in my gardens on January 2, 2024. Yellow Viola plant blooming, Cora Bells, Bloody Dock Sorrel, Rosemary, Sage, and primrose plants (budding), Marjoram green and flavorful as can be all are looking good.
(I suppose the words Stick Season would be wonderful when writing about the people rising up with their beating sticks and beating back the fascists in this country.)
Humans: January 5 – Real Hartford
[…] other day I was thinking about those who announced, months ago, that we are in “stick season“, even if spending time outdoors could easily prove […]