Of petunias, predictions, and black cats

I wonder if my flowers will make it through the weekend. The weather people hem and haw around when its time to actually predict the weather around here. They say something might happen or there’s a probability that something could occur, but rarely do they say that something definite will happen. I suppose that’s the way of all predictions, so I shouldn’t complain. Anyway, I heard a weather person predict we might have a frost sometime this weekend. What that means is that my flowers might not make it through the cold snap and will die. That makes me sad.

As a Mother’s Day surprise, Lite1x planted my flowers one morning while I was at work, and I came home that afternoon to three hanging baskets, one planter box, and two pots brimming with blooming posies – impatiens, petunias, and portulaca. They have continued to bloom all summer. I’ve watered them appropriately and even taken their portraits a time or two. I’ve considered bringing into the garage the ones I can carry, but then I remember the Ecclesiastes verse about “to everything there is a season”, and somehow it seems a little wrong to prolong the season of summer flowers. Now, I know, people who are true flower enthusiasts with large green thumbs would probably disagree, but as I look over the yard, the signs of fall are prevalent. The pyracantha bushes have a bumper crop of berries, the acorns have been falling for a couple of weeks making the squirrels downright giddy, and it’s getting to be time to pass the mower over the lawn so as to not only cut the grass and weeds, but to mulch the already fallen leaves. And today I added one more sign of fall to the house; I changed the banner that hangs from the porch support from the wind-battered, faded cross that has flown all summer to a Halloween black cat. Change happens with or without our help.

This weekend will be a brief taste of weather to come, but this year I think it will come sooner than later, unlike last year. Good. I like having all four seasons. And I wonder what surprises are in my future.