COLUMN: Long glide from summer into Indian summer (9/30/2006)

By Judith L. Brown

We’ve begun that long, slow glide from summer into another mild Palouse fall. There’s been a light frost or two and now sunny, warm — but less warm than it was — weather is back, hopefully for an extended stay. It’s Indian summer, and it’s here once again. It’s a time of year when I feel especially lucky to live on the Palouse.

The Master Gardeners’ lovely demonstration garden, just down the street from me, was nipped by frost 10 days ago. The nasturtiums there took quite a hit. Now they’re struggling to make a comeback.

Barely a block away, the nasturtiums — or anything else, for that matter — in my flower bed have yet to be visited by Jack Frost. Lucky for me, I live in a Moscow “hot spot.” The first few frosts of late August and early September tend to skip my garden. Many years I can still cut fresh herbs in my own backyard at Thanksgiving time.

I like to grow the “Alaska” variety of nasturtiums, which have variegated green-and-white leaves. The five plants in my border garden this year are covered with literally hundreds of jewel-toned blooms. I pick a bouquet of fresh nasturtiums for my desk almost every day, and the leaves add a nice, peppery bite to salads. The flowers are edible too, but making a mouthful of a big, gorgeous nasturtium flower makes me feel like the Tyrannosaurus rex of vegetable eaters.

Over at the University of Idaho’s arboretum, one of my favorite places, the annual garden at the south end succumbed to frost a little more than two weeks ago. When I walk through early in the day, there are often frost crystals on the timbers of the boardwalks by the two large ponds, sparkling in the early morning sunshine. The arboretum’s many perennials and trees, however, are mostly still in their full glory. The maples and oaks are beginning to turn wonderful shades of red and gold and russet, but only a few have dropped their leaves as yet.

In fact, a few plants that are normally spring bloomers are blooming now. A month ago I happened one day upon a purple lilac in bloom. At first I thought it was a butterfly bush, which are prolific late-summer bloomers. But as I got closer I saw it was a lilac — I even checked the plant’s label to make sure. More recently, a white tree lilac called “Charmed” has had blooms on a few branches while other branches are laden with seed pods. Earlier this week I noticed a crabapple tree with just one branch covered in white blooms. I don’t remember this phenomenon from other falls, but it’s possible I just haven’t noticed. Or perhaps fall flowers on normally spring-blooming plants is an unusual occurrence, a response to this summer’s drought or heat — a survival strategy to make a second attempt to set some seeds? Perhaps this is the biological origin of the concept of “late bloomers?” I’m going to watch for this in future falls to see if it happens again.

I actually got up early this morning (Thursday) intending to write a column on Moscow’s new living-wage resolution. I thought I had gathered both the facts I needed and my thoughts on the issue, and was all set to write a column in time to meet my noon deadline. Not very far into the process, however, I realized I needed to do a little more research. I couldn’t do this topic justice yet.

My younger son, a senior at Moscow High School this year and looking forward to leaving the Palouse soon for new adventures elsewhere, emerged from his room just as I was reaching this conclusion.

“The column I thought I was going to write just fell apart,” I said. “I need to write about something else.”

“What were you going to write about?” he asked.

“Moscow’s living-wage resolution,” I said. “But I don’t know everything I need to know.”

“What will you write about instead?” was his follow-up question.

“Fall,” I said.

He chortled.

But the truth is, the living wage column can wait. Fall — Indian summer — call it what you will — is here to enjoy now.

It really is one of my favorite times of the year in this very special part of the world called the Palouse.

* Judith L. Brown is an economist and director of the Idaho Center on Budget and Tax Policy. She lives in Moscow with her family and can be reached at jlbrown@turbonet.com.