It has been a tough few weeks with loss, over here. Not only in my family, but others close to us as well. Me being me, a loss in one area of my life will start my brain echoing with other losses. I don’t want to discuss losing people or pets, so I’m going to talk about the things I’ve lost by moving to another climate.
One of the things I REALLY miss – lilacs. Lilac season in New York is swoonably delicious, in scent, color, and tactile experience. Regular lilacs don’t bloom in Texas, due to the lack of chill*. There are new hybrids that are less fragrant, but they’re not generally accessible to the public. And sure, I could grow some, but I have to have a decent garden and a few years to wait. Which, yeah, I do not as of yet. Additionally, lilacs don’t make for good cut flowers, & they don’t ship well. That didn’t stop me from spending an inordinate amount of time searching, though. No dice – lilac delivery to Texas is expensive, and they don’t guarantee good fragrance. Big sadface for me.
Another thing I really miss – snow. Both Jon and I like fresh snow a LOT. (And Kizu learned to love it WAY fast.) We both traveled enough this past winter to get a weeee tiny bit of cold weather, but not the fluffy drifts and stompy-trompy fun time weather from REAL snow. Even New York City was having a dearth of good snow storms up until the early part of 2016, but those were so gorgeous and so much fun that even despite the slush stage, I now ache when I see pics of other folks in snow. *sends glares to our friends in Canada*
(As a side note to that, while I don’t like the dryness of winter weather, there’s this crisp smell to the air in the latter end of fall I enjoy immensely. I noticed that difference when traveling this yr.)
A third thing I really miss, and this is the one that surprised me – the subtle differences in the stars. I don’t get to see Orion as long, and the humidity makes the stars a little blurrier than New York, particularly in the mild winters.
Those are the climate things I’m missing right now. In the future I’ll do something about what I miss about infrastructure. ;)
* Yes, this is a real thing. Flower aficionados call it chill hours or chilling units, but I’m just gonna go with TEXAS HAS A LACK OF CHILL.
killer puppy tails 