Saying Goodbye

I spent a portion of this weekend saying goodbye.

Goodbye Knockout Roses. You've become more beautiful since autumn arrived, but in a few weeks you will want to rest. I will see you next spring!

Goodbye Morning Glories! Remember how I planted you with the cucumbers? The cucumbers didn't do worth a toot, but you have thrived and given me so much joy for the past two months.

 Goodbye lace cap hydrangea! I am looking forward to your lacy and dreamy blue-violet blooms again next spring!

 Goodbye jalepeno peppers! You and I never got along, but Hub loves you. When Hub is happy, I am happy! We'll plant you again next year!

Goodbye Sugar Maple! Thank you for giving shade to all the porch breakfasts and suppers we had underneath your canopy this year. It seems as if I wait on you for so long to bud out in the spring. All the other trees are leafy and green and you take your own sweet time about it. You are so worth it though; I'll wait on you again next spring.

 Goodbye Encore Azaleas! I love it that in less than six months I'll be seeing your pretty salmon colored blooms again, and then again in October of next year. Encore!

 Goodbye my lovely Old Maids. You have given me many bouquets this summer and I've enjoyed every bright bloom.

 I wouldn't want my other flowers to know, but you're my favorite. Goodbye! I've saved your little seeds, so I'll be planting your offspring next year.

Goodbye vinca! Even throughout the drought and incredible heat, you continued to bloom, and bloom and bloom. I ignored you, most of the time, but it didn't seem to bother you. You just did your own thing and filled the flower beds. Thank you. I do appreciate you.

 Goodbye lawnmower! Thanks for all the work you did this past spring. Summer was dry and you didn't see much action, but we will hope that next year brings more rain, so get some rest this winter!

Goodbye Rose of Sharon!  In the middle of summer, when you are full of purple blooms and every hummingbird in the area is humming around you, I watch from the sink when I'm washing dishes.

All of that hummingbird activity makes it a pleasant task.

Goodbye little rosebud. Your timing isn't very good, I'm afraid. I hope you make it to a bloom before a frost gets you.

Oh, this is a difficult goodbye. The angle of the sun is so low that I can't use you very much in the winter. I will miss you terribly.  I will miss the fresh smelling sheets and blankets and the softness of my clothes when the wind blows them all day.   I will miss carrying my laundry basket out on Saturday mornings and sitting it on the stump, fetching my clothes pins from my laundry apron and singing every gospel song I know so loudly that they bounce off the mountain. And do you know you are my 'thinking place'?  The electric clothes dryer doesn't care about me the way you do. Goodbye.  Goodbye. Goodbye.

Goodbye little Garden Spot! We had a tough time of it this year, didn't we? You almost got washed out by the big rains in April. But you still provided us with tomatoes, peppers, beans, sunflowers, squash and a few cucumbers until the morning glory vine took over.  Then the drought began and the squash gave up first. Seems like they just melted one day when the heat index was one hundred fifteen.   Then the corn blew over during a freak windstorm in the middle of summer. 

We'll be out there to see you in February of next year, tilling and planting. The thrill of seeing little plants popping up from your tilled rows never gets old to me. I will visit you often this winter and throw coffee grounds and buckets of chicken poop on you.   

Goodbye last remnants of Summer 2011!  I've loved every second I've spent with you!

~Shelia~