Yesterday, I noticed that most of the petals have fallen off my brown-eyed susans. Sigh. I’m sure that was partly due to the rain, but also to the change of seasons. They hang in there for so long that it almost seems like they’ll be there forever. So now, I have a few roses that bloom again late in September, the hydrangeas, the giant zinnias, and the geraniums that are in tubs by the funky patio. And the porch plants, of course.

But growing season is definitely coming to an end.

This is the pot that holds the geranium. (The frog is not real.) Since it sits next to some potted impatiens, they kindly decided to self-seed in the geranium pot. Not only that, they bloomed! I love little surprises like that.

We’ve had three days of rain and I’m over it. It rained again overnight. I need to mow the lilac side of the lawn, but it looks like that will have to be delayed until tomorrow. Too wet.

I finished the The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons  the day before yesterday. And I’ve started on the newest Mick Herron: The Secret Hours. As always with Herron, I am never disappointed. He writes intricate plots about British spies, with intelligence and a good deal of dry humor. To be honest, I haven’t been motivated to do anything other than reading. Maybe it’s the nesting instinct that comes with the seasonal change?

Although I did clean the bathroom yesterday.

Today, we go grocery shopping, so at the very least, I’ll get out of the house.

This is blurry because I shot it through the picture window in the den. This is the little Carolina wren who hangs out here and periodically perches on the porch railing, chirping repeatedly. With each chirp, his/her head goes to the right and then to the left. I researched it and it’s a definitely a call – either of danger (not in this case) or simply a form of communication. I’ve always felt that this little guy is calling for his mate. Since they mate for life, let’s hope the other little one is okay. He doesn’t call out every day, but at least once or twice a week he lands on the railing and chirps for about 3 minutes.

I think he’s the bird that sleeps on top of the porch light. We’re very happy that he likes to hang out here.

Question: my Rose of Sharons have tons of buds on them but nothing has opened recently. I’m wondering if they stop opening when it gets colder at night? Does anyone know?

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Goldenrod is popping up everywhere – a late summer favorite. This particular patch is up in the woods. Our maple trees, especially the group on the far side of the house are already turning color and dropping lots of leaves. I suspected this might be because of all the rain we’ve had. It’s been an extremely – and I mean extremely – wet summer and that maple sits in a little mini-valley where water tends to stay for a while. It’s rather like the secret garden. The tree trunk that just fell is in the same area. I looked it up yesterday and sure enough, a too wet summer can cause leaves to drop early. (As can a too dry summer.)

On Friday, our tree guy magically appeared and chopped up the trunk, removing the pieces with a big claw. Then they completely cleaned up that area. I like these guys. I don’t think I’ll like the bill when it comes, but we couldn’t just leave it. There are some parts of the property where we could definitely leave it (and have) but not when half of it falls on our neighbor’s property.

For the first time in a long time, I just couldn’t get to sleep last night. My brain was on overdrive. Long story short, I’m feeling very tired today. This, too, shall pass. So this morning, I spent an hour or two reading The Bullet That Missed,  the third in the Thursday Night Murder Club  series – along with a nice hot cup of coffee.

So far, it’s a rather gray day. We might get a bit of rain.

Pippa is enjoying the last bits of summer before she has to go back to school. Remember those days of running barefoot? When summer seemed endless in the best possible way?

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

I pretty sure you know my reaction to yesterday’s news. Honestly, I never doubted it would happen. Not once.

Can you be happy and enraged at the same time? Turns out, I think you can, given my reaction while reading the indictment.

That’s all on that for now.

Awaiting the news sometime this month from Georgia.

__________________________________________________

A little trip in the wayback machine today. I finally photographed the picture cube from the Gordon Lightfoot concert we attended back in the seventies (maybe 72 or 73?) I saw him live several times, but I attended this particular concert with my friends Becky and Scott. Both of them were close friends from high school and Scott dabbled in photography – I hope he still does!

Scott took the pictures, developed them, and gave me a large print of a photo (I don’t know where that is) and this photo cube – I believe they were birthday presents that year.

Those were the days when Gordon Lightfoot regularly played Masonic Auditorium in Detroit. That’s where I saw and met Judy Collins, as well. At the time, you could get backstage easily and in Collins’ case, I met her onstage and she signed my program. In the case of Lightfoot, we found our way backstage to his dressing room.

I put the cube on the floor to eliminate as much glare as possible.

The last photo was taken as we chatted with him backstage.

You could never get away with that today – only if you had an official backstage pass, as we did when we saw Paul McCartney. Understandably, security is much too tight now.

Don was thrilled when I unearthed this from a box. He insisted we display it by our turntable.

We miss you, Gordon.

Something about me: I have music of some kind playing in my head all day, every day. I can generally tune it out, but it’s there. Right now? For Lovin’ Me. Whoops! It just switched to Bitter Green.

It may be time for another swipe at the front lawn. We’ll see. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday. But today is beautiful. I’m going to listen to some Gordon Lightfoot today.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.