Now we’ve had a light frost in our county so these warm, euphoric October days constitute the beginning of Indian summer—and what is more lovely? Springtime and summer are as lovely, but what is so poignantly beautiful as Indian summer? Mums in an array of analogous shades offer color dominance—while lemon thyme, lavender, mint, sage, garlic chives, sweet basil, and last year’s tomato plants fool us into thinking we still live in a green world.
Indian summer is a time to pause and luxuriate in the sun, but it’s also a time to say our last farewell to summer. Today I gathered my “garden art”, to be stored in the garage until spring. I have four garden areas. This project took over an hour as so many funky treasures either tower over or hover beneath our perennials and bushes. The items had to be hosed off and transported to the sanctuary of our garage.
Farewell to summer! Farewell to those derelict chairs (1 cardinal red, 1 hippie era orange, 1 saffron) which sat in various gardens for months—holding bounty such as a blue granite pail, a broken English porcelain teapot, and a tarnished silverplated pitcher. Farewell to the vintage croquet set. Farewell to the clay warty toad with a baby toadie on its back—so ugly, it’s cute! Farewell to other stone and ceramic critters: the chipmunk, froggie, hedgehog, and rabbit.
Farewell to the fairy house and the diminutive horses that fairies might ride when no one is looking. Farewell to those wavy, stick-in the-ground thingies on (now delightfully rusted) metal poles: ducks, road-runners, gnomes, sparkly plastic balls, weird insects, and whiligigs. Farewell to the cobalt blue bottles which I insert on bare branches and poles into gardens every spring. Farewell to the brown bottle, and the green bottle as well.
Farewell to the fake flowers which filled spaces where real flowers forgot to bloom. Farewell to the copper coffee pot, the stainless steel perc, and the enameled dippers and pitchers. Some of these will take refuge in our home over the months ahead.
Even as I bask in the euphoric Indian summer sun, winter whispers icy insinuations to the periphery of my mind. Winter will come. Winter always comes to Wisconsin. Winter with its pristine beauty and recreational delights. Winter, with its time of testing. Winter, the proving ground for true grit.
Farewell to summer and the funky garden accoutrements. Spring will return, and another summer will follow. God willing, I’ll be here in 2012—to put summer back together, garden art and all!
Meanwhle as I surveyed my gardens, now devoid of manmade “art” yet still abounding in live growth, I saw an exquisite piece of real art: a delicately patterned monarch resting on a flowering hydrangea.
The garden stuff is fun, and I’ll probably always enjoy “planting” it. But God’s art is best of all, and it’s with us in one form or another—no matter what season we are experiencing! 🙂
Love your painting of the Wild Asters and enjoyed your post!
Thank you, Ellen. I’m glad you recognized the asters! They are special to me, and I’ll post more about them soon. 🙂
Hi Margaret,
You are welcome!
I saw the title of your painting when I went to click on it. Guess I learned this when publishing a few of your works, to be sure I had the titles right. I love asters too and especially this painting!
And I love what you said, “Winter always comes to Wisconsin.” Our four seasons are so beautiful.
OOOPS! I don’t always give the pictures their final name in my computer files. But “WIld Asters” is the right name here.
When I began doing the art and scanning it, I thought up silly names that had nothing to do with the subject pictured (if there was a subject), Then somewhere I decided to get a bit more serious. But some don’t have their “official” names even yet. Unless I do the gallery thing someday, my originals may never have official names. 🙂
how did you do that… you need to give me painting lessons