NATURE: THE GOOD and THE NOT-SO-GOOD

SUMMERTIME…WHERE IS IT?

I don’t know about you, but those of us who live in southern New England are still waiting for summer to put in an appearance. Well, that might be a bit of an overstatement. Summer’s shown up here, but she’s like a shy little girl. One day she tiptoes on the scene, all bright blue skies and golden sunshine; the next, she hides behind a cloud of gray clouds and rain.

Not that I’m knocking the rain. It’s been very good for the pots of marigolds on the deck.

It’s also been good at eliminating some of the tent caterpillars that have plagued us in this part of northeastern Connecticut. Last spring and summer, they stripped bare the leaves of many trees. In fact, they killed two of our trees. One was a big, old, beautiful white oak. It was at least 50 feet tall. It broke my heart to see it die. I still can’t quite bring myself to look at the empty place where it once stood.

But that’s the thing about nature, I guess. You have to accept the bad along with the good. Now the sun can reach the oak saplings that surrounded that big tree, and those sapling will make the most of their new opportunity to thrive.

Take the good with the bad, right? I guess there’s a lesson in that for all of us.