Saying Goodbye To Summer, Photo Essay ~ FEW 9/4

Friday Writing Essential—September 4th, 2009

For today’s prompt, write about something you enjoyed this summer, and what it meant to you. This is not meant to be a “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” essay, similar to what I had to write at the beginning of every school year. Tell me about a trip, a discovery, a hobby, or maybe a piece of writing of worked on over the summer. Includes photos if you like. Whatever it is, make sure you personalize it by including your feelings about it in your writing. Don’t forget to tag it with “FEW 9-4” so I’ll be sure to see it. Responses to this prompt will be featured today.

Saying Goodbye To Summer - FEW 9-4

This has been a tough year and though it's still rather hot during most days, it's getting cooler all the time, during the night. We've enjoyed our flowers so very much this year and are in the process of clearing out the gardens in preparation for autumn and winter. It's a sad process, seeing the plants that are done blossoming, but it also gives one hope and something to look forward to, next spring, when everything comes back.

Though our poor vegetables did nothing this year, as did most everyone elses, even in the farmers markets, we found that the local produce from New Jersey, not Connecticut, seemed to have done just fine. So, we did have tomato sandwiches, just not from our own tomatoes...maybe next year?

I think that gardens are here to cheer us, the happy, fragrant blooms bidding us "hello" with every new bloom. We can gaze at them forever and give our neighbors something to enjoy too. These were some of the favorites.

The Day Lilies.

We got very, very lucky here as we'd bought these two years ago, after they'd finished blooming, at a nice discounted price. We didn't actually get to see what they looked like until last summer. We'd only bought two pots at most, of each and this year, look at how they've multiplied! We're excited as now we can share the extra bulbs, which take up about half of our garden with friends and a neighbor, so far, who've loved them.

If these don't give one inspiration, peace and serenity, nothing will. They bloom for a long time and will be missed and therefore appreciated more when they come back next year. This isn't all of them, just a sampling as we'd gotten some that were growing in a farmer's field too, after asking permission that are double-orange blooms. They've made us and our neighbors smile when having a bad day.

The Hibiscus.

We also got very lucky on these, as we did the same thing, as one does when finances allow for food and shelter, but not always beauty. We got these when they were teeny, though they're only second year plants, they've outdone themselves. People ask us what they are, as the blooms on the pinkish and white ones are so big. The plants grew like crazy this year and we'll be moving them, so they'll have more room. We also want them all upfront so more of our neighbors can enjoy them, people walk by a lot as we're in an apartment complex with 88 apartments.

The Hydrangea, that weren't blue until I fed them many coffee grounds. These may have to be moved, as they're growing faster than we thought. We might leave one pink, if we can figure out which one was pink, next year.

These were also bought at seasons end, one of them was damaged and didn't even have a tag to tell us what color it was. Nobody knew what color it was until the following year. We then found one marked BLUE, at another store, on-sale, which turned out to be an off-white. We turned them both blue with the help of a lot of coffee grounds - they like not only regular coffee, but flavored and decaf, as it's the lower PH in the grounds that turns the color.

There's one last place that always inspires and we'll go there right through the fall. It's not even a mile from us and it's our pond, complete with hungry ducks that don't leave for the winter. I think we all feed them too well. There are benches as well as a gazebo to sit in and a perfect place for getting away from it all, as well as for writing inspiration.

If the ducks leave you alone (or you run out of stale bread for them), you can bring along your laptop and write amidst the sounds of nature and peace.

Though Mark is a reluctant gardener, he does love it here and we've been coming here for a long time. This pond allows no motor boats and in at the beginning of fishing season, stocks the entire pond with trout.

I hope some of these photos were as inspiring to you as they are to us.

mn - 2009