It was a beautiful fall day . . .

by Kathy Purdy on October 12, 2003

. . . so I went for a walk. We went for a walk, I should say. The six youngest children plus my dear husband, to be precise. I wanted to see if the witch hazels were blooming. The first time Ivan took me up the hill to see them, he brought me in front of one magnificent specimen, and it looked like a bare-branched tree full of golden snowflakes. I was dazzled. Now I like to go up the hill every year, on a sunny autumn day, to see if I can find that magic tree again.

Much to my surprise, the witch hazels weren’t blooming much yet. I’ll have to go back in about a week and check again. With the generous supply of moisture, I hope there will be a good display. The witch hazel native to our area, Hamamelis virginiana, is one of the hardiest species. Other witch hazels bloom in the very late winter/earliest spring, but they are not as hardy. Maybe one day I will try one.

It takes exact amounts of rain, light, and heat for buds to open together and result in a few days of rare beauty. It might also, I was startled to realize, take more hours of gardening to create an ideal combination than the number of hours it lasted, but that was of little importance to me. After all, by then I had become a gardener.

Laurie Lisle