Color Lessons - Equinox

I think it's a habit from my Alaska days. I mark the season's changes paying extra attention to the solstices and the equinoxes. So fall has officially begun. The moon is full. Day and night are of equal lengths. And changes in nature are everywhere here at WillOaks Campground. Today, the primary colors seemed especially striking.



Red - Yellow - Blue. Primary colors, yes, yet more subdued than in the box of crayons. The red stems at the top were luscious berries that have already been stripped. The yellow is some type of wild sunflower: in due time, these seeds will be eaten. And finally, Great Blue Lobelia, a wild flower that has been naturalizing nicely in the few years I've been paying attention. This was used for some type of medicinal purposes in earlier days, but I don't experiment with these things.

Meanwhile, clouds of tiny flowers, in both white and pale lavender, are everywhere. These are in the wild aster family and around here, are a sure sign of autumn.

There's my camper, near the pond behind the red canoe. We have about 4 weeks left here until the season is finished for 2010.

Happy Equinox everyone!

Spring Equinox - The Balance

I have been working at a pretty intense pace here, but I did at least take a few moments to acknowledge the start of Spring, the Equinox. I love this season best of all, even if we had more new snow that just about finished melting today. I love that the days are getting steadily longer and are now just a *touch* longer than the night. This image shows just how beautiful the sunset can be.

I punted and moved my big patio planters out of the garage today. Some of them had that look of things grown in the dark--pale green and stretching towards the light of one small window. All these planters have small shrubs and/or perennials growing in them. Should these various plants get a bit "pruned" by late frosts, I won't mind as they could use a little shaping. They spent the winter cold, but sheltered from the worst of the weather in a corner of the garage, and I think it's time they return to being outdoor plants. I'd love to move my various cacti, my huge rosemary bush and other overgrown things out to the deck here, and just may do it tomorrow while keeping a stack of sheets and blankets handy just in case a hard frost moves through. The light is better and some of these the plants grow better outside and are just kept alive indoors through the winter.

I've got a backlog of orders to fill here...the worst (I mean the best!) it has ever been. I'm just not used to having such a long lead time between when the order is placed and when it's filled...so I've been a bit neglectful of all things related to the blog, dropping, and most computer stuff. And I'm guessing the rest of this week will be fairly consuming in that my sister and her husband will be here on Wednesday. I'll try to keep an eye on things here as my time permits, but meanwhile, have a great week!!