...with the faint sound of phantom footsteps playing in the garden.

Virginia Creeper Vine autumn color

October 21 ~

With frost in the air for three nights, the warming days since have been welcomed, even though their heat pales to the summer past.  The last three butterfly weed plants were put into the prairie garden just before the frost; then yesterday the remaining three heartleaf ginger plants were added to the others in the front shade garden, as the oak leaves have begun to fall.

Sometimes when I sit outside, as I do today, the sky seems so beautiful with playful wisps of clouds floating past high overhead on currents of air.  What seems so boring in photographs that cannot imagine what the soul feels… well, as I gaze up into that eternity above me, it closes my thoughts, and leaves me in quiet peace.

The front porch glider bench was added to the potted patio area as a place to rest while working around the potted plants and new raised bed area that is quite small… just enough room for lettuce to grow next spring.  Mostly a sunny area, short breaks work well; as during the sweltering months of July and August, shade suits me better.

The worst apprehensions experienced in my life are occurring as I hand over the control of my gardens to my husband, the Great Destroyer, so he declares.  It’s disheartening, entrusting thirty years of one’s hard work to a person who has never cared about gardening in all of those thirty past years.  

Perhaps he’s changed 😎, perhaps I’m too much of a dreamer😒; either way, It's best for me to let go of it all.

Amsonia (Amsonia hubrichtii)

One week later at sunset, after rain storm

Brown-eyed Susans, a biennial.

The first year.

They will be dug up next spring, and placed where needed in the gardens.

Tulip Poplar Leaf - Liriodendron tulipifera

Just as leaves are beginning to fall

One week later after high winds and rain storm

October 30 ~

It’s so difficult making decisions out of suppositions.  My chiropractor thinks the forever pain with neck adjustments is caused when the adjustment aggravates my peripheral neuropathy.  My orthopedic doctor has implied the same.  Physical therapy is fizzling out lately due to so many cancelled appointments from headaches and neck problems.  I feel like my life is spinning out of my control, and it’s a feeling that drops me into depression.  

Instead... with my early morning walk, chills race up my spine as the cold breezes brush past my face like love fleeing the scene.  Two hours later the sunlight warms the degrees to early spring, and love returns.           

Crocus 'Goulimyi'

The fall crocus endemic to Greece.

Named in honour of Greek amateur botanist 

Constanytine Goulimis (1886-1963)

This is growing in morning dappled shade, 

and afternoon partial sun.

I decided not to remove these non-native bulbs, 

as I love them and the hover flies 

and some small bees visit them regularly.

American Hover Fly eating pollen from Crocus 'Goulimyi'.

Their larvae feed mainly on aphids by sucking the juice out of their body.

They may also eat thrips and other small insects.

Swamp Sunflower, Helianthus angustifolius

with Winterberry 'Sparkleberry'

Coralberry, Symphoricarpos orbiculatus

leaning on dried leaves of a lily plant.

While sitting on the glider swing, I lean back and look up at the old white ash tree looming high overhead.  She has only a few yellow leaves left after the winds and breezes have relentlessly coaxed the others to let go and lightly land on the earth below with the faint sound of phantom footsteps playing in the garden. The panicles of seeds are plenteous on her branch tips, as she will rest this winter while her children feed the birds and perhaps grow a new seedling early next spring.

I have no elegant prose or even a poem I could relate to, to end this meandering trail of thoughts and photographs.  This is just The End.  I’m hoping to be back by Thanksgiving, but only time will tell.  After the leaves of many colors have fallen and browned on the landscape, embrace the season and ask yourself what you still like about it.  There’s always something to like.  See if you can find it.

Toothed Spurge, Poinsettia dentata

with autumn color and 3-lobed nodding fruit.

Summer annual with 3 seeds in each fruit that mourning doves love to eat.

Grows in the dry garden.

Dry Garden with Aromatic Aster 'October Skies', and a weedy white aster

I think this is a Fiery Skipper Butterfly.

It's caterpillars feed on grasses;

so if you mow your lawn short or too often,

you probably destroy them before they are able to turn into butterflies. 

Common Checkered-Skipper Butterfly, Burnsius communis.

Its caterpillars feed on mallow plants.

Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly, Phoebis sennae

Northern Red Oak Tree

Rusty Viburnum (Front)

'Appalachian Spring' Dogwood Tree (Middle)

American Hornbeam Tree (Back)

Sweet Dustin

This post is linked to:

My Corner of the World

Saturday's Critters