Muggy, 70 degrees and the garden is in full grow-mode. Time however marches on and even as the morning glories and everything else hit their stride, there are signs of fall.
We've been sleeping with the windows open, fans running, with no blanket, just a sheet. The lovely porch has been too hot to enjoy and with school starting next week, there will be no time to lounge around the plants enjoying this little-used room.
The backyard maples have "turned" first as new growth always does. The chlorophyll is exhausted, done, used up, and the true leaf colors are beginning to show. Fireweed is one of my favorite plants, so named as it is the first growth to grace a charred lot. Tall spikes of fuschia blossoms burst into color from the bottom up. As the season passes the blooms open higher and higher until finally the last ones open at the very top. This has happened already in Anchorage where they are experiencing a normal number of daylight hours, cooler temperatures, and harvest time.
We are losing daylight hours ourselves at a noticeable rate.
The Barton Orleans Fair opened this week. Local lore and legend has it that a frost can occur anytime after this. We hope of course, it is not soon, as the delicatas, buttercups, Waltham butternut squashes still have some maturing to do.
Of course the most telling sign of impending change is the woodsplitter in the back yard, once again in prime place after having been shunted around all summer. The pile of wood from the two big maples that sacrificed themselves for our warm backyard is now ready to be split and stacked in the basement. The old wood furnace is out and the new one in, ready to be hooked up. I hope it will allow the Irish lad more than two hours of sleep come winter when the furnace is going full blast to keep this enormous beautiful house above freezing temperatures!
So if we're not quite ready to pull out the goose down comforters, winter coats, and Yax tracks, we at least know where they are!
No comments:
Post a Comment