An Altered Sense of Time

Some of my neighbors have started to put their holiday decorations up. It started on Thanksgiving – a wreath here, a few lights there, a candy cane decorated maibox – but I’m very conflicted because at my house, I still have pansies blooming.

In my window boxes and in little sunny spots in the gardens, they are still doing fine. Pansies like the cooler weather and so the first thing in my gardens are pansies. The same love of cool temperatures keeps them thriving long after other flowers have withered.

When pumpkins and mums started showing up on front steps, I was not ready for that, either. It seemed like we had only just begun our summer. My gardens were looking good, finally, after weeks of steady rain, and I wanted to keep summer going for
awhile longer. Pumpkins! Chrysanthemums! Forget it! In
hindsight, I was in denial that summer was over.

As the nights are getting colder, I know it is only a matter of days now before the remainder of my gardens is toast, too. And then I can start counting the days until spring. But for now, I think I’ll hold off putting up wreaths and fir roping until my flowers really are ready to go.