summer sad

it's late summer. can that be? Was just yesterday we were digging out of another snowfall... then we waded through a very wet spring. Mid summer bloomed warm and dry. Now it's hot and droughty. A blanket of poplar leaves are covering my lower yard.. the air has that dead leaf smell. Not autumnal dried leaf smell with hints of woodsmoke... but that "dead leaf by drought hot smell." I don't like this time of the year. The glory of spring, the expectation of summer is behind me. And my flowers look a bit weary. My lawn beyond the hose is brown and crunchy. ...

And I had to compost some bits of summer today. One of my front door urns.. beautiful orange impatience... was looking kind of sick. It stopped blooming, then lost weight. I could see down to the dirt beneath. I didn't take a moment till yesterday to stop and really look. Spider mite. So I dragged it away from the other urn and flowers nearby. Today it succumbed in the height of it's glory. I know who made it sick... some pretty purple petunias I've been in denial that they were sick. So much for front entrance perfection!

I am ready for fall now. Will be easy to add a couple of pumpkin buddies (didn't have a pumpkin patch this year) to my orange, purple seasonal theme. And maybe a mum or two. But I'm worried about the mums... stores have them displayed out in our extreme temps here in Minnesota. They are going to blow out before I have a chance to buy them. That makes me kind of sad. And that packet of Kale seeds? Never made it into the ground. Well there's always next year!

Don't stop bringing beauty.. I won't!
~ the Artist