Dear Reader:

I knew there was a reason why I had left three colorful quilts on the rocking chair and three logs in my basket stockpile by the fireplace.

A “blackberry winter” came to visit bringing with it unusually cool, damp weather….burr! Thursday evening I built a fire for the first time since February…probably the last one for the season and it felt so good!

I grabbed the top quilt from the rocking chair and curled up in it on the sofa…lowered the lights and I had a “blackberry winter” snuggle! Delightful!

Blackberry winter is a colloquial expression used in the south…especially, in the Piedmont and Mountain regions, that refers to a cold snap which often occurs in late spring (following Easter) when the blackberries are in bloom.

The Blackberry winter expression  describes the belief that a spring cold snap helps the blackberry canes grow faster.

Grandmother Wilson always warned us grandchildren not to pack up our sweaters and jackets until the “Blackberry winter” passed at the end of April or early May.

In other areas of the country…you hear colloquial expressions about “dogwood winters” or “redbud winters“….depending on what is blooming (that coincides with a late spring cold snap) each year.

The funniest one…which dates back pretty far…(but which Grandmother Wilson remembered as a child growing up) was a “Linsey-Woolsey Britches winter,” referring to a type of winter long underwear which could be put away after the last cold snap.

Today weathermen just call these cold or hot snaps “fronts”….I think the old expressions are much more colorful. Whatever we call them…Thursday was definitely chilly. The house never warmed up and my toes and fingers stayed cold all day.

However…all the flowers in the garden seemed quite happy with the unexpected cold snap….the pansies, especially,  have beamed more brightly than usual…they were beginning to look a little straggly…now they had a new lease on life.

My roses (in the giant pot Vickie gave me last year) are popping out all over…like pink popcorn! And all the climbing, flowering vines have taken off in “hot” pursuit of fences and posts, on which to ascend.

The moon flower and morning glories (vines) are attaching to the strings Anne and I so diligently labored over on the porch.

And here comes the honeysuckle and a beautiful flower…(reminds me of the wild Cherokee Rose)….both are so pretty.

My Daphne is blooming for the first time.

Even though this past week has been pretty cloudy, rainy, and gloomy-looking for most of it….there is a silver lining…I haven’t had to water so I am saving money on my public works bill and the electric bill (which has been ghastly the last few months!)

Besides…I love blackberries….in pies, tarts, yogurt, any way it is served…so if a little cool weather is needed to assure a good blackberry crop…then bring it on!

It won’t be long until we will look back on these cool, cloudy days as a blessing and yearn for their return. God gives us what we need when we need it….so let’s get out there and enjoy life in any type of weather just like all these beautiful plants and vines!

My Passion Flower vine is stretching for the fence, as hard as it can…(even with the old wooden clothespin attached so it won’t fall back down the stick!)

So until tomorrow (Mary Jean Irion)

“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.

One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* When I received this picture from Walsh…I had to laugh…Rutledge is not only the ladies man but he likes older “women” too!…The girls’ parents (Katie Kelien and Sarah Bailey) went to pre-school, elementary, middle, and high together with Walsh…he was always (according to Dee Dee his beloved grandmother) Wallace Dickey Dingle….graduation night from kindergarten one little fella wouldn’t get his “diploma” unless the teachers called him that name too! Ah…memories…and here we go again!