Ode to my Dying Garden...:(

It's Fall now here in PA. It's sad to see the last remnants of my flower gardens hunkering down for Winter.

Goodbye yellow & white 4 o'clocks. I just planted you this year, but the memories I have as a small child growing up with you against our house so long ago brings back so many great memories. The ice truck that used to come down our quiet dead-end street delivering ice to the neighborhood is such a thing of the past. I remember me and my siblings running to see him as soon as we saw his truck coming. Like kids today who run at the sound of the ice cream truck, it's music echoing throughout. Looking back I think of the wonderful, caring man that this driver must have been to treat us kids so special like he did. It was so exciting..lol I remember him handing us huge chunks of ice for us to lick with water dripping down my hands as I tried to get every lick in before the sun melted it to nothing. It was as though this guy was Willy Wonka who had just handed me one of his best sweet inventions.

Goodbye Holly Hocks. You're just a bunch of big crazy looking leaves right now but at your glory in bloom you fill my mother's heart with joy. At 84 years old I thank you for adding just a little more light to her life given the pain she endures while her body continues to age. I know you'll be even more beautiful next year sharing your beauty with her once again.

And my roses. My beautiful pink roses. Your shade has been one of my favorite colors as far back as I can remember. And thank you for being a variety that has almost no thorns because those kinds of memories I can actually do without. I will always have a special place in my heart for you. There's something about the circular swirl of your petals and the sweet perfume smell that I will always love.

And you pink & white splashed 4 o'clocks. Omg how strange yet totally awesome you are! I love how you like to surprise me with a few solid pinks amongst the bunch. I don't remember seeing that wash of colors before. But like your yellow & white sisters I thank you for bringing back the wonderful childhood memory of picking the big black seeds you'll become in just a week or two from now. It's been at least 50 years since I collected you all in my hands but I still remember as if it were yesterday how holding you all felt like I had found treasure. I don't know why but I always looked forward to that time you'd turn to seed as a little girl. Which then reminds me of the neighbor's cherry tree I used to climb. Picking and eating those huge, dark, sweet cherries from the highest branch I could get to was a perfect childhood in my mind. My incessant tomboy need to dare fate like that was fulfilled on an almost daily basis by that tree, yet you never let me fall. And I've never tasted nor seen a juicier cherry to this day despite the many varieties one can find in stores today.

Hello & goodbye my trimmed daylily leaves. You are a more recent memory than my young girl days with the 4 o'clocks but just as wonderful. The beautiful house I owned in the out-in-the-middle-of-nowhereland small town Jamestown where I planted so many of you (150 if I recollect correctly) that when you all bloomed my yard looked like a freegin colored carnival...lol Almost too much beauty to take in at once. I had to stand there for 15 minutes just to comprehend it all. The bonfires that are legal to build up there roared around you many an evening making your beauty a completely different wonderful sight to see in that glow. Sniff..the tiny little black lab puppy my husband and I bought when we got married and took with us everywhere (even on our honeymoon!). I miss you Champ. You were the best dog a human could have ever hoped for. I'm so sorry it had to end so suddenly when you got hit by that car. I watched as you died in his arms. IIt hurts my heart just to think about it. And Ginger. My lovely black/brown Shepard mix who we had to give away when we moved. I will never forget how you loved making yourself a bed in the deep, lake-effect snows we always got and you sleeping outside in your cozy snow hole rather than coming inside with the rest of us. That love you had for the outdoors made it easier for me to feel ok with giving you with the Amish family who lived across the creek & woods between our place and theirs. Afterall you spent so much of your time chasing their tractors as evidenced by the dried mud blown fur you always came back home with...lol You were such a gentle and mature soul and I hope you continued a happy life after we left.

And I can't exclude you lovely pink, orange, red and yellow individual clumps of coreopsis although you bring no past memories to mind. You are making new memories for me where one day I'll look back thinking about my mother's house and our times together today. I like your delicate flowers with your striking color and I know next year you'll probably take up more space than I've allowed for amidst the daylilies. But that's ok. I'll move them to give you the space you need. Your late season color is exactly what's needed there as all others have long since withered.

Thank you all of you for contributing a brighter world for me than had you not existed. I await patiently for your return next year...:)