"A" is for April

How fortuitous!  Today is the first day of NaBloPoMo --whose theme is "Letters" this month.

And in a creamy delight of a coincidence, April starts with the letter "a".

I know-- I'm just bowling you over left and right with the quantum physics here. 

But it is the first day and I'm just dipping my toe in, and so, A=April.  Take it or leave it.

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Any thoughts I could ever have on April are woefully very northern hemisphere-centric-- specifically, very humid continental, United States version.

In other parts of the world, April is not necessarily associated with rain and gardening and rampant reproduction and mud and a completely psychotic weather that can charm the layers off you and then leave you ass-frozen and bereft of warmth on a day like last Saturday, which was predicted as, you know, "chilly" but which --while beautiful-- turned out to be like walking into a meat locker and staying there for days on end.

Yes, I do realize that Saturday was technically "March", but why rain on my parade?  What are you, April?

So anyway, yes: April showers do bring May flowers.

April rain: plants likey.

Plants happy: I happy.

And so, on to my current obsession: gardening.

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Some of my favorite memories are associated with gardening and plants of some sort or another.  I guess most people can lay claim to that and therefore I'm not covering any new ground here. 

For instance, you may remember the wild cherry tree that grew in your backyard when you were a kid.  You may remember collecting the millions of tiny black fruits that it gave freely;  and you may even remember the bugs that preyed upon the tree falling from the sky randomly on occasion and scaring the crap out of you. 

And you may even remember the other REALLY nasty bugs that also seemed to hang out by the tree and looked kind of similar but were actually scary-poisonous and which make you cringe just thinking about them.

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But only someone who's vastly OCD and a nerd to boot would go so far as to ascertain that the tree's proper name is Prunus serotina or black cherry.

Or that the bugs who preyed upon the poor trees were called Malacosoma disstria or forest tent caterpillars.

Or that the evil stinging bugs were called Megalopyge lanata and really look horribly scary in pictures.  And their cousins are even scarier.  Don't believe me?  Look at this little video on YouTube of Megalopyge opercularis:

The stuff of nightmares, right?

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Well anyway.... I'm still cringing here.

But I still love gardening and can only hope that my mind is fertile this April, like the best and most humusy dirt of all.

Comments

[Ashley Ladd]

I remember the cherry tree in my grandma's back yard. We used to pick cherries together and then bake scrumptious pies. Thanks for the memories.

[Ashley Ladd]

I remember the cherry tree in my grandma's back yard. We used to pick cherries together and then bake scrumptious pies. Thanks for the memories.

[Ghosty]

I didn't come over here to share your love of April, but to collect the information necessary to perform those damn memes you keep tagging me for.

Did you know my very first serious crush was a girl named April?

*sigh*

[Zhu]

I used to like gardening... before I moved to Canada that is. I mean, everything I plant and grow is destroy by the snow within 6 months... just don't have the patience.

Now, I'm growing snow and ice. More seasonal.

[anOCgirl]

when in cali, we didn't really have april showers. the raining season was mostly in january. and i always wondered why the flowers came in may anyways.

[Frances]

I'm so glad it's April - warm weather is right around the corner.
I posted my first letter yesterday at my creative writing blog.
I loved the paragraph you wrote about the cherry trees and bugs.
Much bloglove,
Frances

[Anita]

I remember cherry trees... but no bugs. That one in the video is very... creepy. I'm pretty sure we don't have those in Kansas... lol

[violetkey]

Thanks for stopping by my blog! 30 days of posting is going to be oh so fun. While i dind't grow up with cherry trees. I do remember the big beautiful blooms of our crate myrtle tree.