Sunday Snippet: The Autumn Bittersweet of It All Edition
This week, Husband and I have been working on putting our lovely gardens to bed for the winter. Yesterday, Grandboy came over to help out. There’s nothing better than working in the gardens with a willing and strong 14-year-old. “What’s next, Nanny?” The three of us worked for a couple of hours, and although there’s more to do, we ran out of room in the bin that goes to the curb on Tuesday, so we’ll collect him up again in a couple of weeks to finish the job.
Husband hates cutting back time because there are still bees and a few random butterflies flitting about and he thinks we should leave the last of the flowers for them. Some things, like the verbena, which is eternal, are still blooming, as well as the snapdragons and the hydrangea, so I left those for the bees and for Husband. But mostly, things are drying up and dropping seeds and giving up the ghost for winter. The front gardens look pretty bare now, but they’re tidy and ready for next spring.
My office garden is getting tidier, too. We took out the dried-up heliopsis, the browning hostas, and the crispy ferns that were so green and lush just a couple of months ago. I finally found a place where lavender thrives–it’s by the brick garage wall and for the very first time, that lovely scented plant has survived in my garden. Honestly, I would plant a whole garden of nothing but lavender, but I would miss the other colors and variety of flowers and plants.
The deer have been eating my hollyhocks. At first I thought it was rabbits, but the bitten-off stems are too high, unless we’ve suddenly gotten huge jackrabbits around here, which I seriously doubt. It’s hard to imagine deer so close to my house, but it seems as if they’re sneaking in at night and nibbling down the hollyhocks before they have a chance to bloom. Sigh.
One sort of fun thing that happened–as we were working yesterday, a pretty young girl trotted up into the yard, her arms full of library books. “Oh, you’re taking them out!” she exclaimed.
“Yup, it’s time.” I said. “You are?”
“I’m Sadie.” She was lovely and her smile was just so infectious. Grandboy would deny looking, but he was looking. “I’m just walking home from the library and I had to stop.”
I introduced us, and after we exchanged the pleasantries, she said, “I loved walking past here at dusk–these yellow flowers were so luminous in the evening light.”
My writer heart immediately reached out to her… “luminous in the evening light.” Wow. If this girl isn’t a writer, she should be. I started to ask her, but she was off again, bouncing away with a wave and a smile. I appreciated knowing that my flowers brought some poetry to her soul and I was grateful for her words, which I stored away in my mind and later added to my notebook of words.
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GIVEAWAY! I’ve got two ARCs of The Rancher’s Christmas Wife for two lucky commenters. Just tell me: Are you putting your summer gardens to bed yet? What did you have planted there?
Gratitude for This Week: Tidy front gardens; Time with Grandboy; Went to hear Son’s band play last night–they were amazing! Lovely lunch with Sister PJ. Got in a bike ride.
Stay well, keep speaking out and vote, vote, vote! Always choose kindness and most of all, mes amis, stay grateful!
