Everywhere you look on the east end, flowers are blooming. Trees are coming back to life with the fruit trees blossoming with their dramatic colors gloriously catching your eyes. Spring is the season of renewal, rebirth, and rejuvenation. As we grow older, spring becomes more important. It refuels us, it lifts us. A rising tide lifts all boats.
The multi-colored tulips are now taking over from those amazing tenacious daffodils. The daffodils are the precursors of the magic coming to our gardens, parks and vistas. Once again they did their job this year. The older I get the more the daffodils seem like old friends coming by every spring to wink and say, “Here we go again.”
I once lived across the street from the large grass play field of Prospect Hill Grammar School. What amazed me most over time were the bubbly laughs and sweet roars that never aged that first spring day that they let the children out for recess. The school ages, students move on and up, but those Prospect Hill School classrooms have children the same ages every year. The young energy on that grass field never gets old.
Folks are slowly getting the yard chairs cleaned or replaced. Coming are the outdoor grilling and sunset times to be enjoyed from the sanctity of one’s home and yard. I was fascinated the way during the covid pandemic quarantine so many folks rediscovered why they love their homes, their yards and their gardens. It was obvious they once again understood one’s home is one’s castle.
Soon all the huge hedgerows around the estates on the east end will once again block the views they were planted to perimeter. In late winter these barrier evergreens temporarily create window views to some of these beautiful trophy homes. As the days of spring roll toward summer the green shades of these shrubs and trees become lusher and darker daily and act like tall green velvet theater curtains.
If you own a home, this is the time of year you realize the new growth of the shrubs and trees in your yard. Trees grow so slowly, yet so suddenly. A photo of our home from thirteen years ago popped up on my Apple photos “your photos” application. I noticed the giant pines on my property were practically eye level back then. The giant multiple trunk tree that shades the driveway in the dated photo looked like a shrub. It happens, small trees we plant eventually grow into mighty mature trees. Mature trees just have so much dignity, grace and power. When they sway or just twinkle in the breezes of an east end day they flex.
Scattered all over the Hamptons are some old trees the settlers left when clearing their new lands for homesteads and farming. Perhaps there are a few really old behemoths’ the native Americans of way back paused to rest under. When I ride my bicycle down the roads of the historic farms and lands I can’t help but see the old thick tree trunks and wonder.
If you drive around the Hamptons as much as I do you can’t help but feel the power of the open lands coming back to life. East Enders all know that soon the beaches will again be the needed respites from the heat of those coming very hot summer days. Brutally hot days when we all must get to the sea to cool off. Now many of the locals are going to their favorite beaches with their sweatshirts on. Occasionally in spring you catch some very warm ocean breezes. It is a nice change from turning your head and ducking those wicked winter cutting ones.
