A second spring.

Fall here can be glorious. Instead of the omen of dark and dreary winter days holed up waiting for cabin fever, autumn in this part of the world is a release. A release from the air-conditioning, a freedom to breathe the fresh air after a storm, the ability to enjoy spending time outdoors again…and the flora put on their Sunday best to welcome in the escape from the heat.

The instructions said “place in water and watch expand like magic!” After days in water with no expansion, I took to it with prying and pulling and now merely have smaller chunks whereas I was hoping for a sowing material.

I mowed the front lawn for the first time in ages. A new mower even, as the one we’d had the past near-four years blew a head gasket. Replace the head gasket, right? Well, yes, if they still made head gaskets for this model. It is super old though, being that it’s a whole six years since manufactured date, so it makes sense…(not.) This mower had a bag, and while I haven’t bagged lawn clippings since perhaps 1992, the length of the lawn and the hungry new garden beds in the back changed my plans. Six full bags of clippings later and the front yard was done and the beds had some more soil food.

DH was about to grill some dinner for us and thought to empty the ash bin. What a delicious meal the garden beds had yesterday!

When mowing the front lawn, I dodged a few things. Obviously this little resilient blossom was spared the mower’s blade. When we moved in nearly five months ago now, someone kicked or knocked or otherwise took a rose bush off at the ground. It ended up in the gutter. Here we are, nearly five months later, and that little root system has chugged along and plugged away to give it a go and show those careless rosebush kickers! (And the blossom smells amazing to boot!)

That’s not the only rose showing its fall colors…