Daydreams Of Warmer Days

By Tom Poland

 

 

To Get Us Through Winter 

 

As I write, that big, bad, ballyhooed winter storm bears down on the Northeast. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a 100 times, there’s no way I’d ever live up North in that brutal cold and its drifts of snow destined to turn sooty black. Southern winters are tough enough. And so my thoughts turned to winter’s end. Before Old Man Winter bids adieu I like the idea of two light snows. It’s pretty and generally the power doesn’t go out. Heaven forbid we get an ice storm though. They prove disastrous. Give us a little snow Old Man Winter, then get out of Dodge.

As I’ve aged, I like winter less and less. As a boy I loved it only because of the possibility of snow and missing school, but today I view winter as a rude, uninvited guest. I should be just the opposite. I was born in February, February 4 to be exact. Winter generally starts around December 20 or 21 and ends around March 20, the vernal equinox. February 2 and now and then February 3 and 4 as the calendar fluctuates represent the halfway point. Since we’re almost halfway through the season of frost, ice, rime, and snow is the worst sure to come? Probably.

To get us through winter, let’s daydream about a few things we love about Southern springs and summers.

 

Twilight In The South

One day is over and another waits. It makes for a peaceful interlude that provides contentment no other time of day can. The afterglow of day is best savored on a southern porch looking out on old oaks and a well-kept lawn. Add candlelight and a chorus of nature’s nighttime performers—tree frogs, crickets, and cicadas—and you’ll want to sit there forever.

 

Twilight … Photo by Robert C. Clark, from Reflections of South Carolina, Vol. II, USC Press

 

 

Spanish Moss

As I’ve written before, you cannot think of the Lowcountry’s swamps and blackwater rivers without conjuring up Spanish moss. Spanish moss and the Lowcountry go together like William Faulkner and Mississippi, like Sidney Lanier and the Marshes of Glynn. You won’t find a Hollywood antebellum movie about the South that doesn’t show live oaks draped with Spanish moss. The South’s image is forever framed by moss-draped oaks and cypress.

 

Beaufort Spanish Moss, Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

 Peach Blossoms

Van Gogh found a sense of renewal in peach tree’s delicate blossoms, and so do I. Running a close second are cherry blossoms. Sometimes when the light strikes them just so they both look like soft backlit clouds of cotton candy, delicate and magnificent.

 

Peach Orchard Blossoms, Photo by Robert C. Clark, Reflections of South Carolina, Vol. II, USC Press

 

 

Heat Lightning

An old wives’ tale holds that a hot, steamy night generates lightning on its own—no thunderstorm necessary. It’s not true, of course. There’s a thunderstorm somewhere when hazy summer night reflects lighting into the sky. Luminous clouds betray the presence of an unseen storm. Somewhere afar bolts split the night sky asunder.

 

Heat Lightning, Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

 

A Summer Drive Through The Country

As I wrote in Classic Carolina Road Trips, while cachet comes with saying you’ve traveled to Venice, Paris, and other fashionable venues, it’s surprising how many historic places are within driving range. In the course of writing seven books about Georgia and South Carolina, I’ve been to spots and secret places with appeal all their own, and I’ve learned something: you don’t have to go abroad to experience marvelous places nor do you need to flock to the clichéd “must see” venues. Rustic beauty, natural areas, history, and interesting sights and places surround you. Right now during winter is the time to plan some summer sojourns.

 

A Summer Drive, Photo by Tom Poland

 

Fields Of Sunflowers

We love a field of tall sunflowers and birds love their oil-rich seed heads. Sunflowers, as much as any flower, bespeak of summer with the way they follow the sun. Until they “mature,” flower buds exhibit solar tracking and on sunny days buds track the sun across the sky. By dawn the buds, however, again face eastward waiting on our nearest star. Meanwhile we wait the planting season, spring.

 

Sunflowers, by Robert C. Clark

 

Kudzu

Yes, kudzu, the vine that eats the South. Kudzu knows no barriers. It will cover anything in its path except winter, which shrivels it and turns it a dormant brown. “In Georgia, the legend says/That you must close your windows/At night to keep it out of the house. The glass is tinged with green, even so … From the poem, “Kudzu,” by James Dickey.

 

Kudzu, Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies

Hymenocallis coronaria is native to large streams in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. These southern beauties grow at nearby Anthony Shoals where the blooms peak from mid-may to mid-June. When I think of these rare lilies I think of summer. This spring I vow to see them in person up close.

 

Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies, Photo by Tom Poland

 

Azaleas

It’s easy to see why people deem azaleas garden royalty. Color-flecked and speckled blooms of white lavender and orange and red give our yards a fine presence. (Though rarely discussed azaleas are highly toxic and in older times receiving a black vase of azaleas amounted to a death threat.)

 

Azaleas, Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

Dogwood Blossoms

A blizzard of white heralds spring’s arrival. Throughout the Southeast, people love dogwoods for their flurries of snowy bracts (“flowers” are modified leaves) and their ability to beautify any space. A riot of azaleas and dogwoods bring joy to winter-weary souls.

 

Dogwoods, Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

Split-Oak Baskets Of Fresh Vegetables

Tomatoes, cucumbers, and yellow crookneck squash along with pole beans and potatoes round out a cornucopia of fresh farm fare. Tomatoes belong to the nightshade family. Cucumbers and yellow crookneck squash belong to the gourd family. Pole beans belong to the legume family and potatoes the nightshade family also. All belong on the table come summer time, and it’s summer time we covet.

 

Farmers Market Vegetables, Photo by Robert C. Clark, Reflections of South Carolina, Vol. II, USC Press

 

Summer Storms

When a cloud comes up in the country, the first large drops spatter against the dirt releasing a smell that’s the smell of life itself. That fertile fragrance tells me summer is here.

Let’s hope we get through this winter in fine shape. For those of you who keep tallies, at this writing it is 52 days until spring and 145 days until summer. Can’t get here fast enough.

 

Thunderstorm, Photo by Robert C. Clark

 

 

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything. [email protected]

 

Tom Poland is the author of eleven books and more than 1,000 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press has released his and Robert Clark’s book, Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II. The History Press of Charleston just released his book, Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture.

 

 

Sign up here to start your free subscription to MidlandsLife!

.