Summer in
Vermont is the best cure for the earlier seasons when the sun was exhibiting
chemiluminescence. (Chemiluminescence is the emission of light during a chemical reaction, which does not produce significant quantities of heat.)
Summer has
arrived in Vermont. Forecasts float up to eighty and flirt with ninety degrees – for
Vermonters, that is a ‘heat wave’ that melts snow-shovels, and sheds dull, lackluster woolens, mud boots, and snow tires.
Below
seventy degrees I chill, below fifty degrees I hibernate; in Vermont winters my
blood freezes, my mind atrophies. Summer heat revives and inspires me.
So you ask,
why am I feeling blue now in the midst of heat and the luscious greens (there are
countless shades of greens in Vermont in summer) that I love.
I am blue
with joy over the blue flower, Chicory (Cichorium intybus). Also known as blue
daisy, blue dandelion, blue sailors, blue weed, bunk, coffee weed, cornflower,
horseweed, ragged sailors, succor, wild bachelor’s button, and wild endive. Chickory’s
native range is Eurasia. It now grows throughout N.A. and is commonly seen along
Vermont roadsides and other untamed areas.
How many
flowers boast such innocent periwinkle-blue eyes, thrive in wastelands, and
rebound quickly after the highway department mows them down? These plants with
their wiry stems bear no resemblance to feeling blue. They are tough, hardy,
brilliantly beautiful, uplifting flowers.
“Before
coffee was introduced in Europe, people drank chicory-root infusions much as
they do espresso today.” - Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Finches, including Goldfinches, love the seeds from Chicory. The plant has been used as a
medicinal as well as a forage crop.
For me,
chicory brightens my days as it blooms from July to October – the summer months
when I, too, am blue with happiness.
~Bernie
