SPRING  EQUINOX

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Orchids in pots on patio

It’s such a beautiful time of year – the bees are buzzing, the blooms are budding, there’s a freshness and expectancy in the air as we await our first rains. This is true for us, up on the highveld (6000 feet above sea level) here in South Africa, when the rains come in summer unlike e.g. Cape Town which has winter rains. The grass is greening and colour is all about, contrasted with the bright blue skies. The scents of Oxford and Cambridge (yesterday today tomorrow) and jasmine are a delight. The azaleas in my garden are bright and budding. I’ve noted the first jacaranda bloom from my study on a tree over the wall…

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Deep and pale pink azaleas with a clivia in amongst them.

Spring – a time for renewal of all that has been lying in wait during the winter months, feeling the urge and the push upwards, breaking free, budding, blossoming –

As we in the southern hemisphere turn towards summer, so does the northern hemisphere turn towards autumn or fall. In both hemispheres day and night are in balance and are 12 hours in length and duration.

Apart from the earth’s movements around the sun, the equinoxes hold a fascination for me as they represent on another and real level, an inner change. It’s an earthly shift and an inner shift, microcosmically. It’s not as if I think or feel that suddenly all is better and more promising although there is a whiff of that. Spring can also mean reflecting on the winter which has passed, in which we lay low, incubating. Short days, long nights, the sun setting early, rising late. Ice-cold, frost decimating winter plants and we feeling the cold in our bones. Visitors from other parts of the world to the highveld are always struck by the cold in the winter months and the sharply bright blue skies – such contrasts –

Strangely, we had rain this past Saturday night. What an unexpected happy surprise this was, although it was forecast.  Our first rains usually come only in October. This time the rain came up from the Cape – bringing some of its cold –

Spring does hold promise – as do all the seasons. They’re representative of so much – the never-ending rhythmic cycles of planet earth, the shortening or lengthening of the days and nights, our awareness of the passage of time, our selves within ‘time’ as we know it and an awareness of it’s limit in terms of our lives left to live …

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lavender and yesterday today and tomorrow (above photos from my garden in last day or so taken with phone)

Rosh Hashanah – New Year – such a special time, the first day (of two) of the New Year, on Thursday 25th September, in which love, potential and life are deeply considered and celebrated. ‘The Jewish year begins with focusing on the awesome nature and potential that exists within each of us’.*

The Spring Equinox tomorrow here in the southern hemisphere, the Autumnal Equinox in the northern hemisphere, new moon on Wednesday 25th, Jewish New Year the day after … seasons, years, changing …

My Shonah Tovah greetings to all – whether celebrating New Year or the Equinox – may each day be significant, precious and creative.

* from: http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/the-meaning-of-rosh-hashanah/

(A profound piece of writing on Love, Potential, Life).

30 Comments on Spring Equinox and Rosh Hashanah

  1. And Shana Tova greetings back to you, My Dear. Although late, I so identify with this post. I too am getting ready to move into a new year in my life. Change, the expectations for the future, the boldness to move forward are all aspects that encourage me to move toward the future where each day builds upon another day until I see another new year.

    Very nice post. I enjoyed it.
    Shalom,
    Patricia

    • Thanks Jacqui … it is lovely. I often cut stems of it and place in a slim vase with a sprig of bougainvillaea – so pretty!

  4. Thanks Sharon! Autumn is lovely – such a gentle and expressive way of announcing winter. It’s always lovely to watch leaves falling …

  5. A beautiful post, Susan, and lovely flowers too. Thank you! I hope you have a Happy Spring Equinox. We’ve reached the Autumn one here in the UK. It’s becoming chilly again and the leaves are starting to fall, but a wonderful season nevertheless just in a different way 🙂

    • Thanks Sharon! Autumn is lovely – such a gentle and expressive way of announcing winter. It’s always lovely to watch leaves falling …

  7. What a lovely reflection on Spring Equinox and Rosh Hashanah. It’s always so refreshing to hear of the season in the year from your perspective, particularly since you’re in the southern hemisphere. We tend to get so grounded in our own experience and seasons that it’s easy to forget there’s a whole other vibe going on in another part of the world. Lovely photos too!

    • Thanks Stephanie for coming by. It’s so great to be grounded in our own experience! Nice sometimes to be reminded of other vibes as you say! So, North, South, East, West .. Happy Equinox to us all and Shonah Tovah for the New Year!

  9. Hi Susan .. I first came to Jhb in June – and remember the sunny days and freezing wind – I weathered it .. but was always glad to get inside and into the sun … I remember it snowing in Jhb that September in the 80s .. quite a thick layer we had …

    It is the time of change isn’t it .. our leaves are coming down .. though til last week it was positively hot .. now it’s fresher – I’d like to say cold, but it’s not – just the contrast!!!

    I never realised Yesterday Today and Tomorrow was also called Oxford and Cambridge – that trivial piece of information .. that I didn’t know really surprises me! I’d have loved to have known that name and I’ve never seen it anywhere else … but it is truly so coloured.

    Cheers – oh the thought of Jacarandas … gorgeous .. Hilary

    • Thanks for coming by Hilary! I enjoyed your reflections!

      I’ve just googled yesterday today tomorrow to check on my stating it is also known as Oxford & Cambridge. Needless to say my quick search does not confirm that. I will have to phone a friend and confirm or otherwise ..

      But my quick google search yielded that it is also known by other names – kiss me quick; morning, noon & night (some link perhaps to yesterday today tomorrow), and ‘Brunsfelsia Latifolia’ is it’s proper name. Indigenous to Brazil I think I read, and it’s leaves are poisonous. The petals change colour from white to lavender to purple …

      There are two Jacaranda blooms on the tree over the wall. Maybe there will be more when we’re back from the bush on Sunday, leaving tomorrow. And the bougainvillaea is looking lovely. I imagine we’ll see masses in the Lowveld ..

      Hope yr trip with elderly relative is/was going good and that you’re being kept on yr toes.

      Cheers, Susan

  10. Such a lovely, descriptive and uplifting post, Susan. I did not realize you are at same altitude as Denver! Although far different in hemisphere.

    Please keep writing occasionally about spring and summer. I enjoy our autumn, but the shorter days and more severe darkness of winter months do get me down. Being reminded that you are living spring and summer brings them to me.

    • Thank you Sammy! I bet the mountains are even higher in Colorado.

      I can’t wait for the jacaranda to bloom … I’ll definitely send photos which hopefully will bring a smile as you approach winter. Winter has a particular depth to it … and I guess it’s meant to be dark even gloomy.

  12. What a lovely description of your Spring. Seeing and hearing about your flowers and garden was fun. But it is so strange to me since for us in the Northern Hemisphere we are beginning Fall, and what a pleasure too! Each season brings a different form of joy

    I enjoyed your post very much… Thank you!

    • Thanks Gwynn – I agree, each season has its own joy! Enjoy your Fall .. hope to see photos from you of th0se beauteous leaves changing colour ..

  13. I love the photos of your plants, Susan, especially the azaleas — they bloom for such a short time here — and the lavender. I miss jacarandas, common in Southern California. And I love the high desert. Sounds wonderful. Here, right on schedule, it was warm and overcast with 100% humidity yesterday, and today it is crisp and clear with a strong breeze and deep blue sky — autumn has arrived, my favorite time of the year. I have sensed for a week a shift within myself and that balance. A beautiful day today, have been out and about, to the farm market to buy root vegetables to make a soup (which I puree and add buttermilk to) and a walk with Wallie, my friend’s bichon poo, to the library, and laundry flapping on the line.

    This is the time of the harvest for us, and on Sept. 29 Michaelmas celebrates that.

    • I love autumn too Samantha!

      Already some of the azaleas in the complex where I live are dying down, after such a magnificent display of bright white. They’re not so long-lived here either ..

      May the shift continue and balance finds its place, even if it is not so long-lived. It will come again –

      I made a veg soup the other day; and added double cream thick yoghurt after I pureed it – it was so delicious!

      How lovely to have Wallie with you! Lucky pooch! I will check out Michaelmas .. and thank you for coming by! xx

  14. A beautiful reminder that, although we are closing down here in North America and heading into the time of browns and cold, it’s not the case for everyone!
    Happy New Year!

    • Autumn or Fall is such a lovely time of year as well Beth. I love the changing of seasons and their manifestations! Thank you for stopping by!

  15. Susan, looks like you have very green fingers indeed…does not surprise me. Here’s wishing you all the finest in the coming year – -may all the goodies you pass on to others return to you multiplied. Love from south India.

    • Thank you so much Mira! Such a dear message.
      I’m always surprised when things come up in my tiny garden … maybe there’s a tiny bit of green in my fingers …
      Here’s to the Equinox in India and especially to you! Love from South Africa.

  16. A lovely post Susan! Although we know the hemispheric difference, it was good to have it pulled out of the background. Your garden a tribute to more work than mine is!

    • Thanks for coming by Philippa – ‘pulled out of the background’ – I like that.
      I don’t work very hard in my garden .. it is tiny for one thing but it is always such a delight to see Spring bursting out all over in the garden and in the complex and on the pavements of roads in the ‘burbs ..
      I have some amaryllis bulbs and irises even starting to shoot …

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