What's the most famous flower on Cape? Photographer Stephen Heaslip says daffodil.
Seasons are defined by their flowers in the photo-centric world I inhabit. Now that the crocus crop is a regular performer in late winter, the venerable daffodil has also stepped onto the globally warmed stage a bit earlier.
This flower is the subject of many spring festivals timed to its appearance across the Cape and Islands. No other bloom in these parts gets as much press as the daffodil. The hydrangea is a close second, coming along in summer and one could make a case for the late May rhododendron blooms for third place.
This April I have hardly noticed daffodils, too busy sitting in traffic at the Sagamore Bridge, or racing around last week chasing the top-secret document guy working at Joint Base Cape Cod. My only return for time invested on that story was a photo of the entrance sign with a passing military truck in the background, hardly prize-winning photojournalism.
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That changed on a mellow Saturday with 45 minutes to spare down in North Eastham ahead of a sports assignment. I had taken the winding Old King’s Highway down to the Outer Cape, passing up the chance for a quicker drive down the freeway also known as Route 6. Daffodils lined the winding road all the way, tumbling out from under white picket fences and old rock walls, but I didn’t stop. The plan was to head right to Nauset Light Beach parking lot, figuring there would be some daffodils near the lighthouse which would combine for a good photograph.
Memory as my guide, never a good idea as one ages, I recalled a patch of flowers somewhere in front of the light house. Indeed there were, but it must have been before the structure was moved in November of 1996 ― 300 feet west to a new spot across the road and away from the eroding cliff. One of the gardening wonders of daffodil bulbs, they come up year after year, poking up through all kinds of untended yards and thickets, long after someone has dug them into the ground. The flowers of my memory were still there, now outliers barely visible in a patch of underbrush, less than 10 feet from the edge of the advancing erosion.
Further wandering on the trail towards the Three Sisters Lighthouses from Nauset Light did produce several patches of daffodils as the photo shows, but putting the flowers in the spotlight instead of the lighthouse, which was quite possibly the way Mother Nature intended it to be all along, giving the yellow blooms all the credit.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Daffodils line Eastham's Old King's Highway in a Cape Cod spring
