Fall daze

 

I know spring gets tremendous respect for all its new growth, so many plants emerging from slumber, and the world opening up in so many gorgeous ways. But, I think there is as much, if not more, to discover outside in the fall. It is truly a time of harvest and possibility - reaping nature's rewards. It helps to have my young granddaughters (Frog, 3 years old, and Bird, 1 year old) making keen observations about the world around them, noticing everything 

from the breeze 

to drooping flowers 

to birds eating on the lawn

to the moon outside in the daytime.

These two are truly budding scientists, who love to be outdoors as much as possible. 

I enjoy bringing home nature's treasures on my walks, and sharing them with Frog and Bird. On a recent walk, a girlfriend and I found tons of buckeyes - which I promptly put in a basket for the granddaughters to discover on their next day at our house.

Yes, we have had some fabulous fall days, and lots to do and see. Today was blustery and clear, much cooler than it has been. We loved it! We were out and about, walking the yard and the neighborhood. Everything must be touched - or looked at closely. My neighbor's lamb's ear is a popular pitstop, and is still flourishing soft in October. Frog declared this a "much touch" a couple years back, and now her little sister wants in on the fun.

For the past two days, I've been watching this praying mantis in my lavender. I first noticed it on Sunday, as it devoured a bee. Oh, nature!

When Frog arrived this morning, we went looking in the lavender to see if this 'friend' was still visiting. Instead - we discovered its gift of an egg sac, that's pretty cool! Imagine, as I read on Gardening Know How, "The adult female lays eggs before she dies with the first frosts." Should this egg sac survive the winter, there will be hundreds of new mantises right at my front doorstep this spring - woohoo!

Frog will learn something about hope and time, as we watch this egg sac over the winter. 

We are already watching a chrysalis, in another plant. Yes, a few weeks back, we discovered a black swallowtail caterpillar on my parsley...soon thereafter, the caterpillar formed a chrysalis. What was news to me, this caterpillar "winters" in a chrysalis ... if all goes well this winter, we'll have a beautiful butterfly in the spring.

So much to learn in the outdoors!

I'll close with a pumpkin photo...I heard on the radio that today is National Pumpkin Day, so it was only appropriate to take this photo of granddaughter Frog enjoying ours!

Tuesday flowers

 

Today's bouquet

A few weeks back, my granddaughter Frog, who turns three years old later this month, found a small bud vase at my house. My youngest son (Frog's uncle) made it years ago in a college ceramics class, and over time it had made its way to the 'land of forgotten,' way in the back of a kitchen cabinet. I suggested we find flowers to put in it by walking around the yard and seeing what was in bloom. She thought this sounded like fun - I mean, it did involve the outdoors, a breakable vase, and a pair of scissors, what's not to like as a youngster? 

I am once again reminded: there's nothing like a preschooler to transform something from a "once and done" into a regular routine. This simple activity has become our latest ritual on our babysitting days - we walk around the yard together, investigating and discovering, cutting a few blooms as we go, usually just a single blossom from each plant. Frog is learning the names of every plant, and notices the different colors and textures. It can take many minutes to fill this little vase, when the work is greeted with such concentration and respect. This time of year, flowers are going to seed, yet a few blossoms in a tiny vase and there is beauty. Frog helps me see the extraordinary in what is, truly, a very ordinary yard.

After she fills the vase with water, she sets it at the center of the breakfast bar, where it smiles and shines throughout our meals together. 

Such a time of simple delights! 

___________________

It's Tuesday and I am participating in the

 Slice of Life.  

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for nurturing teacher-writers!

Weeding

I am participating in the
 Slice of Life.  
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, 
on Tuesdays.
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers!

I'm out front, weeding, underneath the azaleas. My goal is to eradicate every last remnant of a pesty vine I call bindweed or common morning glory...I'm not quite sure of its name, I simply know its nature. It very cleverly blends into the branches of my azaleas and the stalks of my purple coneflower and black eyed susans, winding itself all around these in a type of chokehold, growing and weaving its way to the top. It is what I call a copycat plant, in that you often miss it, if you simply glance at your flowers...it is stealth, with similar leaves, and entangled within and around its host. Beneath the soil, it has a multitude of runners, allowing it to spread out and sidle up and through almost every plant in my garden. Shoots of this vine will climb along a neighboring stalk and then bend towards each other at the top of the plants, interlocking vine and leaves with one another, forming almost a rope 'hat' at the top of the plants. When the weed has escaped my eye just long enough to settle in, it blossoms with a a bright, white flower - as if to jeer, "Ta da! Look at me! You have neglected your garden! Ha ha!"

It does no good to simply peel off the flowering vines from the tops of the plants - though I admit it is highly pleasurable to grab the mass from above and yank. If I want to get rid of the bindweed, I have to get underneath, to where the vine emerges from the ground...I need to find every chute and dig these up by the roots. I find it is best for me to be down low, on my knees, peering up into the branches, watching for chutes that have climbed up from the soil. It is slow and patient work.

Try as I might, I always miss some. I'll finish for the day, put away my tools, go inside and get cleaned up, step back outside with a cup of iced tea, and my eyes are drawn right back to the blemish - AACK! There's another one of those dang weeds! I swear, bindweed regrows within the hour.

I think how this yard work is a metaphor for our world, where vicious weeds like racism and hate and bullying and misogyny and white supremacy pop up and then reach towards one another, becoming intertwined, and, in this way, much stronger. We cannot ignore these, we cannot make superficial or temporary fixes. The only way to eradicate them is to get to the roots, which means we must be caring, determined, and focused in multiple places simultaneously. We must toil. We must get to know one another, to connect, to be good neighbors. We must give lots of love and attention to that which we treasure, and ensure that it is safe and nourished. We must teach our children well. We must realize our work is never, ever done.