Dear Reader:

When I checked on my plants and trees yesterday morning for the second time…there was stunning beauty and sadness intermingled. At 8:30 a.m. the title photo is how the basket hanging off Eva Cate’s Japanese Maple looked. A precious little fall basket of colorful leaves.

When I returned  around 11:30 a.m. I literally stopped in my tracks…all the leaves had turned brown and withered… in just that short amount of time. *(I was so glad I had taken a picture earlier…hard to believe how quickly the end came when it did.)

As I looked at Eva Cate’s Japanese Maple, the tallest, practically all the leaves were gone…and two days ago…it was at its most beautiful. Ah…the sadness of fall is in its brevity. Like Susan said…the two seasons in the south must people love best are fall…and waiting for fall.

At this stage of fall (titter-tottering on the down slope) …it is wisteria leaves that suddenly imitate fall colors and climb up trees…and they, too,  are experiencing their personal  fall moment of grandeur. It is now their time to shine.

Nature never ceases to astonish and amaze me…leaving me gasping with wonder. Every spot on earth, no matter how “un-livable” it initially appears… can not stop life from popping through. I always think back to the Irish Burren for a good example of endurance and tolerance.

If you want to go to the moon….save your money and instead visit the Burren in Ireland…at first glance all you can see are rocks and boulders. Gray on top of gray for as far as the eye can stray.

But then if you pause and stop to look in the tiny crevices between the rocks…life, in the form of wildflowers, is growing.

If you want to see life conquer barren rock….go to the Burren in “Miraculous May”….it is like the moon became a garden from a Disney animated movie…it just lasts a few days in May but once again it is the brevity of this transformation that makes it so memorable and gives humans such hope!

So until tomorrow….Change will come with the seasons…ending one for another…another chance at hope and stunning sightings beyond the imagination.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

While some foliage is falling with its last leaf fallen… others still prevail…my morning glories and my cut- back mums produced a new bloom.

While sitting in the recliner catching up on some reading…I looked out the front window and the Bradford Pear looked almost abstract in the late afternoon sun’s rays

*Yesterday Brooke had to return for another surgical procedure on her arm/shoulder…which is officially “frozen.” Hopefully this latest procedure will get Brooke back on track with more months of physical therapy facing her…but she says she is ready to resume whatever it takes to get full use of her arm and shoulder again at any cost. Please keep Brooke in your prayers as she drops back to punt to score a final touchdown. We all want to see Brooke back at her usual peak of happiness countenance!