I look forward to things each year. Clouds of steam from the sugaring, the disappearance of the ice, the first tiny wildflowers. And then – the glory of the orchards. But not now . . . oh no! It’s too soon . . .
Babs Young writes: What a difference another week makes. There are cherry blossoms around. They usually don’t appear until early May and we have a freeze warning for tonight. I hope these beauties make it.
From Robert Frost’s poem Good-by and Keep Cold, 1920
No orchard’s the worse for the wintriest storm;
But one thing about it, it mustn’t get warm.
“How often already you’ve had to be told,
Keep cold, young orchard. Good-by and keep cold.
Dread fifty above more than fifty below.”
Once tender beauty emerges into the great world, it cannot be wrapped up in its snug bud and tucked away again. Ready or not, it must deal with whatever Mama Nature decides to throw at it. Hold a good thought for the orchards tonight. So far as I know, there’s nothing else to be done.
Torch Lake Views 
shoreacres
March 25, 2012
Oh, Lord. I just looked at the NWS page for Michigan. You’re in for it, aren’t you?
I’m just not going to allow any problems up there. I’ve had all I can deal with this week, and more destruction will not do – even to a cherry tree.
(If only I had that power….)
Gerry
March 25, 2012
We are, indeed, in for it. Not surprisingly. What was surprising was the Unseasonable Warmth. Here comes Normal. Gahhh.
Heather
March 25, 2012
Great photo!
Thanks for sharing the poem, too. I’ll spare a few good thoughts for the orchards tonight, and their keepers. I fear it’ll be a long spring for them.
Gerry
March 25, 2012
I’m glad you liked the photo and the poem. Maybe it won’t freeze really hard. Maybe the cherries will make it. Maybe I’ll go climb into bed and pull the comforter over my head.
Dawn
March 26, 2012
Much like life and people…”once the tender beauty emerges into the great world it can not be wrapped up in its snug bud and tucked away again. Ready or not it must deal…” Great quote!
It’s 32 here this morning….. 😦
Gerry
March 26, 2012
I am doing a Cowboy-like wriggle of delight. I give you an excerpt from Frost and the thing you choose to call a great quote is what I wrote? My day is made. Maybe my whole week.
It is chilly here this morning, but not too bad . . . dunno what happened in the orchards last night. I should have gone out to see if the wind machines were out and going. I’ll go ask around later.
Dawn
March 26, 2012
Gerry, your writing always makes me smile. You’re original and succinct. Which I’m not sure I spelled right…but you know what I mean. I know what I like and I like your writing! 🙂 Your post inspired mine tonight.
tootlepedal
March 26, 2012
Early warmth is a hazard to our fruit trees too. We had a bad year last year because of that.
Gerry
March 26, 2012
I remember reading about a shockingly bad “spring” in the UK last year. It is a platitude to say that all life is change. It is something entirely different to discover that all life is change and change back again and change in a different way and circle back over there . . .
Orchards are orderly. First a long winter’s nap, then the gradual awakening, then the bloom, then the bees . . . When the pattern is disrupted Things Fall Apart. The trees can deal with a delayed spring. They can deal with surprisingly bitter winters. They can’t deal with disruption.
Maybe the biggest problem with climate change is that the change is not orderly but wildly unpredictable. We, and other living things, have our work cut out for us to adapt to that sort of thing.
tootlepedal
March 26, 2012
I agree about the unpredictability. It is a pity that this gives some people the opportunity to say that it is occurring.
Gerry
March 26, 2012
Oh dear I see I’ve been unclear again. I believe that we are in a sustained period of significant climate change. I think it would be a good thing if we paid heed and tried to adapt accordingly. I don’t think it’s linear – I think it’s extremely complex – but I don’t think it’s normal cycling either. My theory is that the better we tend the land and our communities and each other, the better off we’ll all be regardless. I promise I will not be lecturing a tootling, pedaling, garden tending bird guide anytime soon.
P.j. grath
March 26, 2012
I don’t remember ever reading or hearing that particular Robert Frost poem before. It is way too early for cherry blossoms. Cooler air yesterday and for a while–slow them down? As long as we get no hard frost or freeze, it’s still possible the orchards could make it through. Let’s hope!
Gerry
March 26, 2012
That was just an excerpt – the whole thing is here at Bartleby. It isn’t one of his best, but I always think of it when we have a spring like this.
Molly
March 26, 2012
Years ago in Traverse Magazine there was a piece by Anne Marie Oomen — a memory of her father placing damp bales of hay throughout the orchard, then setting them on fire in the hopes that their slow burning would save the fruit…… I found it hard to sleep last night, worrying about the cherries & those whose livelihood depends on them.
Gerry
March 26, 2012
Smudge pots, wind machines, clouds of fervent prayer – and then we will see. Those of us who grow things, those of us who work the harvest, those of us who eat the bounty. Pretty much all of us.
shoreacres
March 26, 2012
Well, the weather geeks are paying attention. Your area made Jeff Master’s front page over at weather underground. I suspect you folks experience this sort of thing much as we do hurricanes. You see it coming, you do what you can, and then you wait.
Gerry
March 26, 2012
Or we crawl under the covers and weep into the curly fur of the Cowboy, depending on temperament. I am determined to pull up my socks and get out there and do the only things I know how to do. Hope extravagantly and tell the stories. Or tend a bonfire. I know how to do that, too.
cherries4health
March 26, 2012
So well said and yet another night of Mother Nature’s wrath tonight. Lets just hope they weren’t hurt too badly 😦
Gerry
March 26, 2012
Babs and I stopped by and took a couple of photos of the apricot blossoms on M-88, and the wind machines ready to do battle. Let me know if you need a bonfire tended.
Sybil
March 26, 2012
Things are happening too fast Gerry. The timing would be the same here in Nova Scotia. Fruit trees should be budding out in late May. We’ve been known to have snow in May. How are these trees going to make it till then ?
Gerry
March 26, 2012
Well, we are just going to have to see what happens. We have had such springs before, and we have had summers without a crop, too. The trees will survivie – they just won’t bear this year if the frost is too severe. We are in for some Interesting Times.
chris
March 26, 2012
we have so much to worry and fret about in life these days.
gas prices, health care, the economy, I like to think that God can handle the weather worries.
When we decide it is out of our control give it up to Him. It feels good to let someone else take care of the big stuff.
Gerry
March 27, 2012
The serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Works for me.
Nye
March 27, 2012
Gerry, I didn’t expect to see it this early in your area. It’s kind of nice to have the unseasonably warm weather this time of the year, but it confuses the plants and trees.
Gerry
March 27, 2012
It shouldn’t be here this early. The warmth was so lovely . . . but it could not last, and there has been damage to the orchards and vineyards. I don’t know enough to know how much.
P.j. grath
March 27, 2012
GOOD NEWS this Tuesday morning in our neighborhood: No frost or freeze overnight, and the cherry trees are in good shape. This cool-down, in fact, is good for slowing them down. Big sigh! Of course, there’s all of April to get through yet….
Gerry
March 27, 2012
That is good news. We live in a region of microclimates. I’ll have to get out and about over on this side of the Bay. I count a lot on the diversity of those microclimates and the crops grown in them. It seems that we should always manage to have something to eat Around Here, one way or another.
Back later . . . !
flandrumhill
March 27, 2012
I’ve tasted those cherries from your neck of the woods and they are… well, you know… AWESOME! I hope their harvest is not ‘too’ affected by the odd weather this year.
Anna Surface
March 27, 2012
What a gorgeous blossom and great capture. Cherry blossoms are to behold. My old lilac bush has bloomed early and I don’t think we’ll have a freeze this time. There have been years when there had been a freeze and it killed all the blossoms and blooms… including the tulips. Spring has sprung all warm and muggy… very early for this year.