“The Bright Affair”
And just like that, our fifth summer in the Valley came and went.
On Monday morning, we took a final dip in the river. Watered the garden well. Harvested whatever was ripe enough to harvest, made a few bouquets to bear as gifts for friends, and started to make our way back to the big smoke.
Each year, the departure becomes a little easier for me. I’m not saying there were no tears this time around (I’m only human!) but I felt that the deep and abiding connection we have grown not only to Maison Blum, but to the community we’ve come to be a part of, transcends the distance between here and there. And I think a big part of what has made saying goodbye easier this year is the fact that I’ve made a new commitment to this beloved community in the form of the Blooming Valley Garden Club.
Once a month or so, the Blooming Valley Garden Club will meet in the cosy premises of Cafe la Ruche in Huntingdon. I especially love this café not only for its wonderful owner, Carolyn, whose work creating community in our little town is indispensable, but also because as someone who has been gifted more than her share of bee paraphernalia throughout a lifetime with the nickname “Bee Lee”, its apian-themed decor makes it feel like home to me. The perfect spot for gardeners to gather and for the cross-pollination of ideas to take place!
En route out of Huntingdon, I distributed the flyers for our inaugural gathering like a bee spreading pollen. Joy, determination and the excitement of seeding a fresh start replaced the usual existential dread I feel when leaving the country for the city.
I dared to slip a flyer to a gardener whose garden I’ve long admired from afar, and was offered a peck of peppers, freshly-picked. I popped by a house where a garden sale was on to find that its inhabitant was the same lovely lady who’d sold an antique violin to my friend at the Chateauguay Valley Antique Association fair the week before. We went into Huntingdon’s other gem of a café, Jream, where my flyer was met with an enthusiastic “Yes, please, put it up!” and met the amazing Jordan, coffee guru and defender of local artists. There we ate a slice of sheet cake he was giving away for free - leftovers from the town’s bicentennial celebration - and marvelled at the paintings currently on display (by André Librex of La Lavandou, artist and lavender grower extraordinaire, originally from Carcassonne, which is “my country” back in France). Was I a bee or a flower blooming? I felt like both, abuzz, and opening, and thriving.
There’s something in the poem below, by Emily Dickinson, that speaks to me profoundly in this season of my life. Something about the importance of follow-through, of making the best of one’s circumstances, of how without responsibility one can not expect result. And so: while I eagerly await the first meeting of the Blooming Valley Garden Club, I’ll be keeping busy, researching and writing and scheming and dreaming. Preparing for the “Bright Affair.”
Bloom—is Result—to meet a Flower
And casually glance
Would scarcely cause one to suspect
The minor Circumstance
Assisting in the Bright Affair
So intricately done
Then offered as a Butterfly
To the Meridian—
To pack the Bud—oppose the Worm—
Obtain its right of Dew—
Adjust the Heat—elude the Wind—
Escape the prowling Bee
Great Nature not to disappoint
Awaiting Her that Day—
To be a Flower, is profound
Responsibility—
