Just like spring will one day come again, I am filled with hope today. But I am going to leave it to you to decide if lilacs blooming in November is a good thing or not.
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Got something to say? Email me at fastweedpuller at gmail dot com.Wisdom from the sage
Wendell Berry:
"We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it."
--from an essay in "The Long-Legged House""The word agriculture, after all, does not mean "agriscience," much less "agribusiness." It means "cultivation of land." And cultivation is at the root of the sense both of culture and of cult. The ideas of tillage and worship are thus joined in culture. And these words all come from an Indo-European root meaning both "to revolve" and "to dwell." To live, to survive on the earth, to care for the soil, and to worship, all are bound at the root to the idea of a cycle. It is only by understanding the cultural complexity and largeness of the concept of agriculture that we can see the threatening diminishments implied by the term "agribusiness."
"Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating."
--both the above are from essays in "The Art of the Commonplace: Agrarian Essays"Is this so hard to believe?
"An atheist is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor, or Ba'al, or The Golden Calf. As has been said before, we are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further," Richard Dawkins, 2002.
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fast grow the weeds 
OMG!!! Are you serious?!? Lilacs in November? Where? In Michigan? That is NOT good. I’m going to cry now.
Yup Tameson. Here in the chicken yard. Upside: They smell just great!
Now I have lived here all my life and that is something I have never seen.
I’ve noticed roses and irises flowering two cycles between spring and winter in the past couple years here in NYC. Freaks me out.
Freaky and leaves me wondering about climate issues, but I am so jealous! I just love lilacs… the scent!
How very odd, though.
No, not good. Really sad and they’re my favorite too. I hope they’re OK in the spring.
I just love lilacs!
I, also, am filled with hope today, but lilacs in November cannot be a good thing. Is it a huge bush that is blooming?
oh my! I have one flower on the cherry (sakura) tree as well : ) It was also in bloom few Nov back when we came to see the house and thought that was a welcome sign : ).
well, if lilacs were the harbinger of the day’s outcome I will now always think of november 4 when I see lilacs
wow
Angie: well! If we live long enough we’ll see all kinds of things.
Anna, I was in NYC last January and I saw daffodils blooming in Gramercy Park. Yep, freaky stuff!
Ali, I know, it is kind of odd. I don’t think the tree was stressed at all: we’ve had a bit of rain this fall but otherwise it’s not like we’ve hit the deep freeze and come out of it. But I agree they smell pretty good, especially atop all the wonderful smells of fall.
Alecto, well, we’ll see. I have noticed that the branches that are blooming are also setting out new leaves. They’ll get bit for sure.
Jules, I wish I had more of them! This bush is a monster.
Pamela, yeah, it is a monster but it’s not all blooming, only about 30% of it is…which is surprising in itself of course. Even moreso now that most of the leaves have dropped from the tree!
WF: I guess in my heart I consider it a good sign too. Such a zest for life, for hope!
Ah, Teem, I was wondering if you piled your troops onto a southbound #151 to see the activities last night. I sure would have: those crowds really got me weepy, that, and those gorgeous buildings in the backdrop. It would have been fun to have been a part of it.
OMG, it’s an omen! The question is whether a good or bad one.
Walt Whitman’s elegy to Abraham Lincoln:
WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
Oh my, not a good thing!
Lilacs blooming in November is indeed a strange thing.
And, so is today.
I say, enjoy.
That is nuts! Our lilacs came and went in May in PEI.
Love your blog!
Why is this such a bad thing? Am I missing out on some gardeners’ secret knowledge? (other than the issue of climate change.)
So relieved at our choice of President. Perhaps this is the start of a new era…
Danielle, that is positively chilling. Here’s hoping there’s no direct link, you know? Thank you for posting it.
Kathy, well, at least they’re pretty and smell wonderful!
CC: I enjoyed the day very much, thanks. And just when I thought I would, you know, calm down about the whole election I found out I was just as interested in news of the transition process! Ack.
Thanks, Laura Jane! Ours came and went…and came, I guess.
Laurene, I guess it is that whole global-warming thing. Here it is Nov. 6th and our windows are open, and I am worried about the stuff in the greenhouse being too hot. But yes, a new day has dawned, politically, certainly.