Pre-Winter

The pre-winter season holds my attention like nothing else does these days. The change from summer to fall was dramatic courtesy of the drought in the midwest this year. Many trees just dropped leaves before any color came, while others flamed brighter than they have in years past.

Now we're entering that "iffy" time of almost winter, but not quite. The weather sooth sayers tell us that the next few weeks will be cold, but then the rest of the winter will be almost balmy...for Michigan. We had that last winter too.

In my years of winter viewing, I've noticed on thing that makes this time of year great for me - as many changes as we have in weather they really cannot predict it well sometimes, and winter is one of those times that can be difficult to understand. It is the one thing that we humans can predict all we want, but often we are still wrong about.

Nature is - for a time at least, still in control. And for that I am glad.

Changing Seasons

It’s that time of year for changes for us here in the North. It began with a bit of cold that pushed its way through the warm screen door and sent summer scurrying further South. At first because of the dry summer I wasn’t sure if we would have our normal colorful fall but some of the trees have exploded with reds so it finally is fall here.

Many here aren’t into fall and winter but I love those seasonal changes. I grew up where those seasons were celebrated by some, though we have our share of snow birds. But the fall and winter are great fun for me even though I have to live in layers. Playing in the leaves can be so much fun with anyone under the age of 6! And there’s nothing like the snow to make snow angels, or snowmen with. (Does anyone remember the snowmen Calvin built in Calvin and Hobbes?)

The seasons are all fun…and your perspective on them is everything!!

One Totally Confused Lilac Bush!

I stepped outside the door this morning with my dog and took a deep breath of our nice NEW cooler temperatures. We've been deep summer hot for way too long, but a cold front came through last night and I woke to an air conditioner that was off courtesy of my husband on his way out this morning, and open windows with the most lovely breeze sailing through my house! With a cup of coffee in hand I stepped out onto our patio. There is nothing better that the smell of coffee and fall!

I looked around and began contemplating what plants needed to be cut back this morning and my eyes stopped dead and my brown and rather rumpled lilac bush. There was something frilly and purple at the top...no! Lilacs bloom in the spring! I rose and walked a few steps to my bush to take a better look.

There at the tip of a branch were four purple flowers blooming and smelling lovely. Not a complete lilac flower - that's for sure, but a few tiny flowers none the less and the smell was just grand.

"Poor bush, it's totally out of sync," I said. This is fall, not spring! Was I crazy? I went back and sat in my chair and took another gulp of my coffee. What prompted this small burst of spring? Totally confused, I wandered back toward the flowers and looked at them again. Yes, they were real.

New flowers on a bush that was so brown and almost ready for winter's chill. My shrub had really lost it! It's confused and isn't sure what season it is I'm sure. Let's see...hot summer, hot fall, well we did have those few days of cooler temperatures. Nature does strange things sometimes, but as I sat there in that cool fall day I decided to sit there and enjoy all that my garden held for me today...the fall colors, the crisp air, and the promise of spring.

Leaves for Thought

Sitting in a lawn chair, leaning back and watching the sky is a wonderful place to be on a cool fall morning. I sat this morning taking in the cool air watching the contrails and the bees buzzing all over what is left of my garden. That wonderful patch of ground filled with flowers this summers has become brown with long gray stalks where birds play and the only color comes from the asters and mums...but that is enough.

The fall is a minimalist season, unlike the spring with its exploding exuberance it is more a quiet exit to a gentler time. Though winter is often filled with winds and void of color, it is also a time of quite withdrawal. Behind closed doors there are more quiet pass times for many in our part of the country so fall is that thoughtful time where I contemplate life and wrap myself in the colors and quiet that comes from kids back in school, and life returning to a settled way.

Fall is here and I actually am looking forward to the season, and that cold one that's coming after as well. I love the summer's flowers and feeling of being productive, but I am more a fall devotee. The raking up of the summer's memories, and the moving on to a new day.

Comes the Fall

This season is my friend.
Cooler temperatures,
winds that sing,
and leaves that shine in all the autumnal shades.
It's grand to walk through the day
and smell deeply of changes.
From promises, to green, to golds and brown.

Fall in My Garden

This cooler weather is inspiring for me. I often sit on the patio and enjoy most mornings, now. The birds are flocking and along the fence every morning there is a line of sparrows waiting their turn to dip and drink from our bird bath. It reminds me of kids waiting for the bathroom.

Though the garden isn't as pretty as in the spring and early summer some flowers are still blossoming. The cosmos look great, and the asters are beginning to bloom. But I must admit there is much in the garden that looks quite ragged. But that too gives a beauty of its own. The tall brown stems of long dead lilies are now the perches for the goldfinches and sparrows.

The sweet autumn clematis is beginning at the very top to break out in lovely small white blossoms. It covers the trellis at the back of the garden and has often been called the garden "ice cream cone" by neighbors because the blossoms seem to balloon from the top down. There the littlest of my garden birds congregate under the leaves and flowers safe from the local cooper's hawk as it makes its daily pass over the yard.

The fall can be so restive and quiet here in my garden world. It's truly a place to escape as the days speed by. Here I can almost stop my world and take time to inhale the garden that nature creates all around me.