I spent a good portion of my day performing part of my annual fall garden clean-up and appreciation ritual. Really I dabbled. There is a lot more to do but as I worked, throwing out rotten old plant matter and collecting things to save I began to see Fall at its best.
I have always liked the look of certain flowers as they turn shabby but I am in awe of seedpods and things that are wonderful dried. This is the end of the season for these plants but they are at their most beautiful. After a while I had collected some hydrangea to dry, some honesty, a pile of sunflower seed heads and vines of bittersweet. I placed several of the sunflower heads facing out in the suet baskets of the birdfeeders and brought the rest inside for later. It really is only fair to give these seeds back to the birds because they planted them in the first place. I peeled the outer layers from the honesty, scattered the seeds about and plopped the hydrangea in a vase (no water).
The tufted titmice, sunflower seed aficionados, were at the feeder immediately and didn’t seem at all shy.
Though even the sunflower seed heads seemed like sculpture I couldn’t get over how beautiful the moonflower seed pods were.
Several weeks ago I picked bunches of herbs to dry. They were nice and ready so I gently squeezed them into flakes and put them into jars. My favorite is the dill seed which smelled wonderful. I put the dried lemon verbena in a dish and am trying it as a potpourri.
When I see nature look gorgeous at the end of the season it gives me hope.
Even though yet another birthday is bearing down on me like a land missile.
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