In Kentucky we usually have several cold snaps before spring finally comes to stay. So we call them winters. Redbud winter. Dogwood winter. Locust winter. Blackberry winter. The names come from whatever is blooming when the chilly air sweeps back into the area the way it has several times this spring. This year the cool spells have been colder than usual with record cold temperatures for May several days in a row. I’ve always thought blackberry winter was the one that seemed coldest, but this year, the weather won’t warm up enough to let those blackberry blossoms open up. But the locusts are blooming. So, we can blame this cold week on them.
Here in Kentucky we have a saying that if you don’t like the weather just stick around a day or two and it will change. That’s happening this week as we are going from a high in the forties on Monday to a high in the eighties forecast for Thursday.
Usually the first cold snap in the spring will be redbud winter. This year we had a perfect spring. Nice weather. Beautiful redbud blooms. One day of chill but nothing to concern us. While everything else was going crazy with the pandemic, we at least thought we had it made with the spring weather as we coasted through March and into April. But then we had a record setting cold day in late April. Ice in the birdbath type cold. Some trees weathered the freeze. Others had to start over with leaves as the ones already fully out froze and turned black. But Mother Nature wasn’t through with the freezes even then as we had another record breaking freeze on May 9.
Even if we do have to blame this cold snap on the locust blooms, I still like their fragrance. So much that I used it in my novel, Scent of Lilacs. While the title says lilacs, and I used that wonderful fragrance in a pivotal scene in the book, the locust bloom fragrance showed up in the story too. So each year when the lilacs bloom and then the locusts do, I remember my Hollyhill characters and I’m thankful for the gift of those stories. While Scent of Lilacs wasn’t my first published novel, it was my first novel published in the Christian fiction market by Revell Books. An Appalachian Summer will release the end of June to make my twenty-first book with Revell and my thirty-sixth published book altogether. If you’re interested in seeing a list of the titles, you can check it out here.
Publisher’s Weekly has reviewed An Appalachian Summer. While they get Piper’s age wrong (she’s 20 in the book), they did have nice things to say about the story.
Gabhart (These Healing Hills) takes readers to the majestic Kentucky mountains during the Great Depression in this enjoyable inspirational romance. Piper Danson, 16 years old and independent-minded, suffers through her society debut in Louisville to please her mother. Handsome Braxton Crandall is the heir to a railroad fortune and has the blessing of Piper’s father to court her, but Piper’s heart belongs to childhood friend Jamie Russell. Jamie’s family, however, lost everything in the stock market crash, and he feels he can’t give Piper the life she deserves. To keep her mind off romance by doing something of social value, Piper decides to spend the summer working as a courier with the Frontier Nursing Service. There, she learns to pluck a chicken, helps deliver a baby, and grows closer to the Lord in the quiet rural atmosphere. But when Jamie and Braxton both follow Piper to the mountains, her plan to forget men is shot and she must make a decision for the future. This refreshing historical will be an appealing escape for readers who enjoy Tracie Peterson. (June)
Flowers make an appearance in this book too. Not because of their scent but their beauty when the rhododendrons bloom in the mountains. An Appalachian Summer is available for pre-sale now at your favorite internet book sites. You can see more about the book and read a excerpt here.
Do you think about the spring winters when you have a cool snap in your area? What’s your spring weather been like?
Comments 20
I think we are having more cold spell then we have winters to name them.
Author
I think you’re right, Janice. I’m calling this chill down today blackberry winter and declaring spring winters officially close. As if I had that kind of power over Mother Nature. LOL.
After an absolutely delicious day on Friday, May 15, it turned cold an poured inches of rain here in SE Wisconsin yesterday, May 17. I don’t feel so bad for not having everything planted.
Thank you for celebrating midwifery. Eight of our nine children were born at home with lay midwives in attendance. I even trained with them for a bit before my family became too large for me to be more than an advocate. Both of our midwives also traveled to other countries to train and mentor, in addition to being on the forefront of establishing guidelines certifying midwifery’s status in the state and nation.
Author
That’s interesting, Darlene. Sounds as though midwifery worked well for you. My daughter-in-law wanted a midwife to deliver her first baby, but then there were complications. So that didn’t happen.
You have to be a busy mom with nine children. I talked to one of the Frontier Nursing midwives who had worked with the service in the 1960s and then went to Alaska as a midwife. She was an amazing woman. I wished I had more time to right her memoirs, but a friend writer is working with her on that now. Alice is in her nineties and still so busy every day it was hard to find a time to go visit her to talk about the Frontier Nursing experiences.
I am so excited to read your new book. It sounds wonderful, just the kind of story I love.
The weather has been really wonky this year! We just ran out to take all my hanging baskets down after listening to the weather. I had an early private shopping trip to Stream Cliff Farm in Indiana. Having been cooped up inside for so long, I brought home a lot of plants. I feel like I am running a marathon, trying to keep them healthy until it is safe to plant them. Who knows when that will be!
Author
I’m hoping it is a story readers will enjoy and it makes me smile that you are excited about my new mountain story.
May weather was very wonky around here. Last week we had on sweatshirts and I turned on the gas fireplace. This week the air conditioner is going and it’s so hot the dogs wouldn’t even go out with me while I was planting flowers. We had just come back from a walk and they were hot.
I bought a pile of plants last weekend too. Planted some of them today but it started sprinkling. Not enough to get me wet but I was tired and as hot as my dog buddies so I said the rest of them would have to wait. It was raining. LOL.
In Campbellsville the locust bloom are done gone and the blackberries were blooming during the first of the week cold. Even though it was cold last week it really didn’t hurt any thing. I have roses, calamitis and my rhododendron is in full bloom. Just glad it warmed up and I’m looking forward to An Appalachian Summer.
Author
I do hope you’ll enjoy my new mountain story when it comes out this summer, Janice. And you must be a little south of me. The blackberries are finally opening up out in the field today. The raspberries that were bloomed got killed but some weren’t bloomed out. I have hopes for them.
I’m looking forward to reading An Appalachian Summer. And I’m thoroughly enjoying the warm weather today. It’s absolutely perfect. I hope all the springtime “winters” are over. I want to plant some flowers. 🙂
Have a blessed day everyone, and enjoy the upcoming weekend.
Author
I did plant some of the flowers I bought on Mother’s Day weekend today and will put the rest of them out tomorrow. Then who knows? We might even plant garden soon. Glad you enjoyed the day, Lavon. It was a beautiful day to be outside after the rainy cool day we had yesterday.
Our spring has been similar to yours. I’ve lost so much to these spring freezes. I loved A Scent of Lilacs. I need to reread it. Thank you for sharing.
Author
It’s such a compliment to have a reader say they want to reread one of my stories. I appreciate that so much, Lucy. After I get my current work in progress finished I’m hoping to do an audio recording of Orchard of Hope. We’ll see if I can figure out the narrating and recording well enough.
Our spring has been cold too. Our trees are just starting to bud now when other years they would be full of leaves. We seem to have a constant cold wind every day. But it is supposed to warm up soon according to the weather map. Like you we try to walk every day with our dog. Today she is 4 years old so will have to spoil her even more than usual today. Have a blessed day 🙏😇
Author
Happy birthday to your dog. I know the birthdate of Marley, my English spaniel, but only know the date I got Frankie from the Humane shelter. So I guess I could celebrate his adoption date. Marley will be nine on the last day of this month. Frankie will celebrate his 3rd year with me in November. I’m guessing he’s around three now since he wasn’t a year old when I got him. The shelter people told me he probably was 2 or 3, but since he grew a bunch after I got him, I’m thinking he might have been 8 months old. So much for the plan not to get a pup. But I’m still glad he’s mine.
Spring came early here but then put on the brakes and headed back into winter for a while. Nice today though. Sunshine and 70s.
Spring weather here in the Lowcountry of South Carolina has been strange. One day the temperatures are warm and the next day is cooler. Warm days, cool nights. Spring always brings changes. We are enjoying the hummingbirds and beautiful flowers. Looking forward to your new book. Have a blessed day!
Author
The ruby throated hummingbird is back in Kentucky for the summer. It buzzed my windows last weekend to let me know it was back and I better be hanging a feeder out there for it. So, of course I did. I love watching the hummingbirds. My daughter lives ion the other side of the state in SC and her weather has been up and down too. Chilly then warm.
Thank you for wanting to read my new book. That makes me smile.
I’m looking forward to your new book.
Author
Thank you, Debra. I so appreciate you wanting to read my books.
We have had an absolutely wonderful Spring with temperatures dipping into the hi 50’s but warming into the 70’s with low humidity, which is unusual on the MS Gulf Coast. So low there have been around 5 wild fires and a burn ban had to be imposed. One meteorologist compared it to the humidities in California that lead to their terrible fires. Had to think twice about that. Low humidity around here is nice but…there is a limit!
Now the temps are warming up as in your area and the humidity is rising. It’s after midnight and still in the low 70’s. Have a beautiful Spring, Ann. I’m looking forward to your new book and congratulations on all your published books. I consider it an honor for your books to be published by a Christian publishing company. There standards must be very high.
Happy Spring! 🌷😊🌹
Author
It’s always interesting to hear about the weather in other parts of the country, Karen. I do hope you don’t have any fires like in California. I’d guess that the low humidity feels nice but is unusual for this time of the year for you. I’ve never been to Mississippi but I always think of it as very warm. Then again it’s a big state north to south so Mississippians probably have a big range of weather. Sort of like Kentucky does in terrain east to west.