We usually celebrate Earth Day by planting a tree or a shrub. We'd already done the planting...three Leyland Cypress trees at the end of the driveway...before the bad weather reports for this weekend started coming in, Stripey.

This afternoon, the air got juicy and the dark clouds started rolling in, bringing with them lightning and thunder. Our NOAA weather radio went off three times, telling about severe thunderstorm warnings in our area. We got some small hail but nothing damaging. Rain fell in torrents.

At least it washed the accumulation of yellow pollen that had been on the back and front decks of our house, as well as everywhere else. Now, we've got that colder weather coming in with snow predicted for the northern mountains. We won't get snow where I live, but it's going to be a change. I'll be bringing in my houseplants I'd placed outside, and my father will be covering up that tender young lettuce that has just begun to peep above the ground.

We call this brief cold snap "Dogwood Winter" because the dogwood trees are blooming. In early to mid-May, we'll have "Blackberry Winter," another short cold snap about the time the blackberry bushes are in full bloom.

Catherine

To be perfectly honest, I pretty much celerate Earth Day every day. I have planted so many shrubs and trees there is no more room, the whole area is in shde. That is why I can't grow milkweed for the Monarch butterflies.

I love every season, but winter the best. As I have said before, walking after a snowstorm, while the clouds are still black and forboding and the air is crisp is invigorating. Snow often sticks to surrounding trees giving them a white relief against the dark clouds. I feel as though I am walking across one of the winter motif bowls one gets around Christmas time.

Then willow trees start to show some life. Their whips turn yellow before anything else has shown any sign of life. Those yellow whips turn into a yellow lace curtain across the east side of my property. Eventually the color moves to chartreuse as leaves mix with flowers.

Then spring bulbs start to poke their heads through the earth. Snowdrops bloom while snow is still on the ground. Early corcus precede the larger crocus and daffodils come in next. While they are blooming I have a carpet of little blue flowers that reaches across the west side of the property. Those yellow daffodils against the blue carpet are stunning.

Don't care for summer much. Too hot, too humid. The house turns into an oven and there is no way to get relief.

One thing I do love about summer is the mass of birds that come to my mulberry trees. You have never seen such color! The mulberries start bringing birds in in May when they have just started to set their blossoms, and continue through the entire summer. If someone does not like birds they should never plant mulberries!

But autumn! There is another beauty! I have maples, willow, fruit trees, magnolia, and the ever present black walnut that squirrels insist on planting every year. Some of them go unnoticed until they are HUGE and generally crowding out something I would rather have. Along with all the shrubs all planted with birds in mind, the place becomes very colorful. Pine and fir trees remain green while the place is ablaze with reds, oranges, yellows, and crimsons.

Every day is Earth Day for me, that is the reason I am still living out in the country with no transportation. Ya' just have to make choices and this has been mine.