Traveller.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2098, 29 July 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Traveller.

Mid-Winter In California.

Before the middle of December of the present winter new potatoes were in the market, and there has been an abundance of them ever since. Tire new potato, about as large as a hen's egg and tapering oil to the size of a pigeon’s egg, goes ((.nick in the market, not because it is very good, but because it is new. In its half-grown state it is a crude vegetable, about as heavy as a leaden bullet and a little more digestible ; but then it is now and its crudeness is excused. At about the advent of new potatoes the new crop of peas came in and are now abundant in the markets. In several places in Alameda County almond trees are now in blossom. They are not forcing the season, but the season is forcing the buds. The almonds ought to have held back until Febmaiy, but these warm days have brought the fruit buds forward nearly three weeks in advance of the usual time. The almonds §ro bursting their buds in all warm and Sheltered places ; cherry buds have swollen so that without cold weather to check them they will be out at an unseasonable date. Of course the fruit-growers have some concern about this early development of fruit buds. The danger is that some sharp frosts a few weeks hence may nip the young fruit. In the nature of things there must tse some rainstorms in February and March, with probable frosts just after the storms. The country roads are in fine condition; the grass is green and well advanced, although the pastures are not as good as last year, when they were brought forward by the warm rains. But in many warm nooks one may observe that the new grass is six inches high, and in places the alfileria is large enough for the first mowing. But somewhere about this date winter ought to put in an appearance. It is true that there can be hardly more than a suggestion of it in this latitude, but then the suggestion is wanted. Oranges are crowding the last of the grape crop now, and the orangevendors hawk the new crop through the street. Strawberries are never quite out of the market. The new crop which came alongin December.showsjust now a fainter blush than usual. The frost is not good to paint the real carmine on strawberries. One good warm rain and three sunny days bring on the color. The acacias are in bloom and the willows that held the old leaves waiting for a good rousing rainstorm are just starting the earliest catkins. The fine weather has brought forward a good crop of winter roses. Out of fifty of the choice varieties, one may see two-thirds of them in bloom now in suburban gardens, especially where there is little elevation above the frost line, and even on low grounds where the soil is a light loam, and the rays of the midday sun strike into the porous earth. Even so tender a rose as the Marechal Neil, more than half tropical, may be seen in bloom in open grounds where there is a little protection from north winds. And the bloom of heliotropes has been as blue as the heavens for the last sixt weeks. The ancients named this beautiful flower after the sun, helios, and when the sun kisses it, even in mid-winter, it rejoices in its wealth of blooms.

These are good gardening days, as well for orchard as for vineyard. They are days of tilth, when, if one puts the shining spade into the ground, say a little at morning and evening, he will get the first odor of germinating, springing soil. The amateur gardener, who dues mere head work instead of taking the spade in hand, misses some of his great opportunities. Why have a suburban garden at all if there is nothing to be done in it ? Why not look over into a neighbor’s garden and be satisfied ? If one will have the garden,let him be true to the tradition of his ancestor, Adam, whose first business was to take care of his own garden and to do honest work In it. There need be no dilatory plea that it is mid-winter in the lap of spring ; it is spring in the lap of winter, and it looks now as if there was to be a prolonged sitting. And so there is tilth of garden, orchard and field, the bursting of buds everywhere, while a few uneasy people are hunting for winter and cannot find it. These are the mid-winter days.

An Armenian Marriage-— The Armenian girl whose marriage is to be described, had delicate (lowers of celestial blue, painted all over her breast and neck ; her eyebrows were dyed black, and the tips of her fingers and nails of a bright orange. She wore on each hand valuable rings, set with precious stones, and round her neck a string of very fine turquoises; her skirt was of the finest spun silk, her jacket and trousers of cashmere of a bright color. The priest and his deacon arrived, the latter bringing a bag containing the sacerdotal garments, in which the priest arrayed himself, placing a mitre ornamented with precious stones on his head, and a collar of metal, on which the twelve apostles were represented in bas-relief, around his neck.

He began by blessing a sort of temporary altar in the middle of the room ; the mother of the bride took her by the hand, and leading her forward, she bowed at the feet of her future husband to show that she acknowledged him as her lord and master. The priest, placing their hands in each other, pronounced a prayer and then drew their heads together until they touched three times, while witli his right hand he made a motion as if he blessed them. A second time their hands were joined, and the bridegroom was asked ; " Will you he her husband 1"

“ I will," he answered, raising at the same time the veil o£ the bride, in token that she was now his, and letting it fall again. The priest then took two small wreaths of (lowers, ornamented with a quantity of hanging gold tli reads, from the hands of the deacon, placing them on the heads of the married couple, changed them three times from one head to the other, repeating each time,— i unite you and bind you one to another —live in peace.”