Green and Golden
These are the green and golden days on Cape Cod. Just a couple weeks ago, the mighty oak that overshadows our deck began unfurling its pale golden-green leaves. Now when the sun rises, it slants through the oak leaves with its own golden-green light. Everything is gold and green. Everything. The car. The floor. The furniture. The countertops - all is covered with fine golden-green powder.
The pine trees are pollinating.
Cape Cod has a lot of pine trees - white pine and pitch pine, mostly. This is the time of year they desperately try to reproduce, the male trees spreading their pollen with the winds. It’s also the time of year when the temperatures rise into the seventies, causing those of us without air conditioning to throw open our windows, doors, and skylights.
And now everything I own is green and gold. I mopped the floor three times on Saturday, since we were expecting company. They still managed to leave footprints in the pollen coating every surface. The smooth clean white Silestone countertops are gritty and faintly yellow, despite near-continual wiping.
On the bright side, pine pollen is one of the numberless nostrums sold to the gullible as a male performance enhancer. It sounds a little gay to believe that swallowing male pine tree semen will help your own morning wood, but I swear I’m not making this up. Pine tree pollen is said to be an androgen, capable of increasing testosterone levels and containing arginine which is supposed to help with erections. See articles like this one for more information.
As for me, the only thing swelling is the membranes of my nose.
The green and golden days only last a couple weeks, and then things calm down a bit. Except for the goldfinches, which begin mating in June. Hmmmmm…
The pine trees are pollinating.
Cape Cod has a lot of pine trees - white pine and pitch pine, mostly. This is the time of year they desperately try to reproduce, the male trees spreading their pollen with the winds. It’s also the time of year when the temperatures rise into the seventies, causing those of us without air conditioning to throw open our windows, doors, and skylights.
And now everything I own is green and gold. I mopped the floor three times on Saturday, since we were expecting company. They still managed to leave footprints in the pollen coating every surface. The smooth clean white Silestone countertops are gritty and faintly yellow, despite near-continual wiping.
On the bright side, pine pollen is one of the numberless nostrums sold to the gullible as a male performance enhancer. It sounds a little gay to believe that swallowing male pine tree semen will help your own morning wood, but I swear I’m not making this up. Pine tree pollen is said to be an androgen, capable of increasing testosterone levels and containing arginine which is supposed to help with erections. See articles like this one for more information.
As for me, the only thing swelling is the membranes of my nose.
The green and golden days only last a couple weeks, and then things calm down a bit. Except for the goldfinches, which begin mating in June. Hmmmmm…