Fall Flowers

I couldn't decide which picture of my cosmos to post so I used both. The second one shows the pink flamingos as well, which I like. The first captures the size of them better. I originally thought these were blooming late, but I was ignorant of the life of cosmos. It is everywhere now, still making new buds among the dried up stems and leaves of other plants that have had their blooms and died. The leaves on the trees are pretty much in the throws of death, too. Probably they will hang on another few weeks, reaching a peak of blazing color and then fading to brown, dropping from the branches, and blowing away.

I like Fall for its promise of cool weather and dark days. Already the sun is gone by five-thirty. Night comes earlier and earlier until the winter solstice in December. Then it reverses the process. It's our planet spinning around in its predictable way, coming back to the beginning, altered slightly as it creeps toward its own death.

Anyway, short days and long evenings are my preference in dividing up waking hours. It's true that there are many more dark hours than light in the winter, but when you consider the hours we humans spend awake, the dark is only asking for equal time.

I have been spending a lot of time knitting over the last couple of weeks. That activity is inspired by the coldness of the house. I haven't turned the furnace on yet, but it will be hard to postpone it much longer. It's in the low fifties when I get up in the morning, and again in the evenings. The days are still warm, though, sometimes into the seventies. It's the time to think of the coming winter, prepare for it with warm sweaters, and not quite remember how uncomfortable it is to sit in the living room wrapped in two blankets, a hat, and mittened hands trying to warm your nose.

Alice is still on my mind constantly, a sore that won't heal, a hole that can't be filled.