Opening Season

Memorial Day weekend. Though the solstice is weeks away, this is the symbolic start of Cape Cod summer. Route 6 is packed with everyone coming down to Open the House for The Season. BJs was packed with people stocking up this morning. Well, good for you guys. Someday maybe I'll have something to open for the season, but with two college tuitions looming on the financial horizon I kind of doubt it. I also feel that for me, one house is enough of an anchor, though I am delighted that mine is where it is.

(Oh wait, does a shed count? Mr. S. is building us a shed, which I'm sure to be Opening for The Season for the rest of my natural life :).)

It's been an absolutely glorious Spring. Lots of sunshine and cool breezes, and the temps haven't been much above 60 (F), which I think is just perfect. Last week a friend remarked what a warm Spring we've had, and I laughed, because I'd been about to say the opposite. We're both right. Daytime highs haven't been as warm as in past years, but we also haven't had a frost in weeks. It's all good.

So the daffodils are done and the forsythia's faded, but the rhododendrons are rocking and the oak leaves are opening. Which means the caterpillars are crunching. Hopefully we won't be hit too hard by those this year. The past two caterpillar seasons have been like a plague - really revolting. The trees need a break to recover.

This is also the year for the 17-year cicada. I hate them, hate them, hate them. Which is irrational, because they don't bite or sting. They just hang out in trees making a god awful racket, and blunder noisily through the air, clumsy and stupid, banging into everything. Years ago a friend changed my mindset about them a bit by pointing out it's as if they're saying "whoa... how do you fly this thing???...." then, crash. And it does help to see them as ridiculous rather than loathsome, particularly if I happen to be what they're crashing into. But I still hate 'em.

In my brief search for cicada links, the top sites I found were owned by people who love the damn things. Cicadamania.com ("are you ready for Brood XIV?") warns that if you have a shellfish allergy, you shouldn't eat them.

That's right.

Wherever your season and/or wings are opening, I wish you a joyous and relatively collision-free time of it.