With a sudden great lurch of the gears, the season has shifted into fall. The cooler air has recharged my gardening batteries after a long summer of heat, drought, deluge, and mosquitoes. It feels so good to be able to walk unhindered to the compost bins for the first time in a month and a half. We finally got the logs from the fallen tree out of the paths and off of the plants, which have been remarkably unscathed with one notable exception. The boxwood will never be the same; half of it got flattened.
Maybe it's time to try my hand at topiary.
The return of rain and cooler temperatures has set off a wave of reblooming throughout the garden, including the confused little Anemonella (Thalictrum thalictroides) pictured at the top, which in other years has often completely disappeared by the beginning of September. The first of the asters, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies', has started blooming, and the Colchicums are sprouting.
Hummingbird sightings are on the upswing, the kids are back in school, and all is right with the world (at least in my little corner of it). It's time to sit out in the garden and savor these precious days.