My sweetbay magnolia is already setting fruit, which is cause for both joy and melancholia. Joy because these cone-like red fruits are extraordinary to look at and provide great snacking for many birds in my neighborhood.
But looking at them this morning made me melancholy, too. Here we are in the midst of a heat wave (that finally looks as though it might give us a break for a few days) and already Nature is gearing up for fall and winter. I'm not quite ready for that transition, although cooler temperatures are welcome anytime! It seems as if my sweetbay's creamy blossoms just faded. Guess what? That was a couple of months ago. What happened to summer?
All this got me thinking about fall and my to-do list. The garden looks terrible right now, despite occasional deep waterings over the last two weeks, and it's difficult to think about planting and transplanting when the ground's as hard as a sidewalk.
But like my sweetbay, the industry is already headed that way. The catalogues are pouring in. As if I haven't spent enough money on the garden ... is there ever a cheap season??
I actually found myself looking at a $300 two-in-one chipper/shredder, thinking how useful that would be in making leaf mulch. Am I crazy or what? Think I'll take a pile of catalogues on vacation next week and spend, oh, a few days mulling this over. Between lobster roll lunches and dips in the ocean, two decidedly summer-y activities.
Somehow the summer is slipping away. The leaves are already crunching under foot, the catalogues are piling up, and I'm thinking about leaf shredders and new plants and where on earth I'd find the room in this garden to plant something new.
Here comes fall, and I haven't learned a thing!
