No, I haven't fallen off the map, nor have I been without power this last week. I've just been insanely busy. No time to sit and watch the bees on the ex-asters in the Nanoprairie, but hopefully I'll have more time next week. I the meantime, I'm enjoying the peak of autumn color here in Chicagoland as I whiz past it driving to and fro.
The woodland garden is once again full of blooms and colors after its mid-summer rest. For the first time in memory, the Geranium maculatum foliage is shriveling more than turning its usual brilliant red. It's also doing it earlier, a testament to the extremes of the past summer.
Other things are performing strangely also, such as the Hosta plantaginea, which just finished blooming. It's usually done by mid-September.
It's already turning, too. Makes for a sort of surreal effect.
There's been a whisper of frost on the front lawn earlier this week, today's high is around 80F/27C, and I've had to pull short-sleeved shirts and shorts back out from the nether regions of the closet. I love fall.