As the Hydrangeas Turn

                      “And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.” ~Oscar Wilde

 As the hydrangeas turn I find I am totally caught off guard by their decision. I walk right by them everyday. I cannot miss them as they are everywhere around Camp MP. They brush my legs when I walk to the driveway as they have tumbled onto the walkways and they greet me at the front door, back door... The "quick" turn from classic hydrangea blue to "it's time for me to sport my fall flair" pinky-mauve happened in a blink.  In a time when nothing is working as it should the gardens at Camp MP do get that it is September...even if the keeper of the gardens has NO clue! 

 How is it September? Seriously I missed a month or two or three or...I spy berries bursting forth on the trees, hear the acorns starting to do their fall drop dance on my neighbor's deck, watch as spots of leaves on random trees paint themselves into autumn...but summer?  Yes, it was hot, sticky, buggy, but was it summer and if it was where did it go?  

The gardens at Camp MP have always held lessons for me: patience as I plant and wait for the sign of buds and blooms; perseverance as the critters chomp away and I refill all the holes they dig and replant what they pop out to make room for what they feel is more important; persistence and determination as for every one weed I dig out 100 more appear in their place...but always, always, the gardens have whispered hope. 

 “Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them— The summer flowers depart— Sit still— as all transform’d to stone, Except your musing heart.” ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 After winters with hundreds of inches of snow the gardens for the most part do what they are assigned to do-they pop up, they grow green and in as many cases as possible they bloom.  This year where the world just stopped, my gardens ignored what was happening around them and simply burst forth. They promised with each bud and bloom that while everything else seems upside down it is OK. They want me to stop. They want me to loo. They want me to pay attention, not just to them, but to all I usually miss when the speed of "normal" time carries me.  They tell me they know better and that NOW is what counts and that maybe there is a lot that when the clock starts again for all of us we may not need to care so much about.I have very wise hydrangeas!

 So now, as the seasons turn and I am once again looking for summer as it is waving so long, I turn to my gardens for their wisdom, for answers. What's next?   As the hydrangeas turn I may be surprised, but I am also relieved and grateful that they are there for me to look to, to ground me, to guide me, and to say OK girl it is time to move forward-keep moving forward and be well!

       “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald      

Summer Still-Suddenly September

 “Summertime is always the best of what might be.” -Charles Bowden

 I know, I know, every Labor Day I fuss and whine, but here it is again-a summer sailed away without me on the boat and all I have to show for a summer lost are some mosquito bites. Today while I flip the calendar pages to September, yes I still do real calendars!, I think  didn't  I just turn those same pages to June? I am struck by time again... the time I never have to sit with summer, the time lost, the time I spend on so many things that just don't have my heart or my head but have to be done, the time to be with summer still.

Is it growing older that makes Summertime fly? How often in the past few days have you heard "Can you believe it is Labor Day?" NO! I CANNOT!  Someone go find me June, July... A blink and suddenly the skies grow dark earlier,  scarecrows and even bags of trick or treat candy are everywhere,leaves and acorns start to drop...and suddenly September.

 Labor Day weekend of course always feels like an abrupt and an unwelcome end to summer. For me this year it is particularly unsettling as summer 2019 was just so wrong in so many ways.  The weather caused my hair to look like a brillow pad , the news was, and is, a numbing continuous storm of anxiety and horror, and even the gardens of Camp MP lost their bloomin' heads-growing out of bounds like a jungle or in some spots showing no effort or joyful blooms where there should have been an abundance,as every critter ruled and burrowed and chomped away...and I was just plain grumpy along with it.  I can't even count on two fingers when I got to just sit and do a summer day, lazy days with a book-in fact the pile of books that called in May remain unopened.  
Can I get a Do-Over on summer 2019???  

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 "Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." -Henry James

 I want to slow everything! down and not have to be here on Labor Day saying .."wait, wait, what happened to my summer?"  It's a blur and I  just want to sit for a bit and  hold to "the best of what might be." Summer after all is supposed to be the time of year that everything moves like a snail , nothing much is scheduled of a serious nature during the summer months- everyone is away, or going away, or just coming back from being away...and in summer it is not only perfectly acceptable, but also fashionable, to be lazy and just sit with a book.  Nights are slow in coming and have a special air with sounds that open windows welcome in-dogs barking, kids riding by on their bikes, night crickets, and of course baseball on the radio...

via

 September in New England should not to be dismissed, the skies are glorious and the weather rides the change toward sweater weather.  This weekend, however, is a marker, closing the door on "true summer" the season that gives us permission to Go Play Outside.  With Labor Day we have to come in, toss the flip flops aside and put on "practical shoes" --we have to Go Back to School and back to our desks piled high with all the things we said we would get to "after Labor Day".  Just this week there  have been subtle signs of the season changing ... dry leaves turned on the trees, Mums filling the nurseries, Halloween cards on the racks and my favorite-the "plunking" of acorns as they fall and hit my neighbor's deck.  Mother Nature is serious about her calendar even if I am not.  I cling to summer well into November! when you will still see my flip flops by the back door.

Don't get me wrong, I adore  the fall- crisp air, glorious colors, tweeds,and crunchy knits, the scent of cinnamon and  apples, piles of pumpkins, the whole New England postcard.  Soon I will start digging out the tired blooms and replace them with  happy faced fall pansies and curly pink flowering kale.
  I might even run for the needles and cast on some cables!!

Labor Day, however, means we have to be grown ups again, not something I ever enjoy! OK, maybe September is not such a bad thing, but you sort of get used to wearing your summer brain.  The new season does means a new start-we all remember what the day after Labor Day always meant-new shoes, new outfit, a fresh box of crayons, a new teacher, a clean chalk board and a brand new year--much more fun than New Year's Day!

 via

 So I suppose there is no reason Fall can't welcome in a whole sparkling start-I sort of like the idea!---after this very grumpy summer how welcome hitting restart would be-if only!!  but if its OK with everyone I'll delay rowing the boat ashore just yet, and leave my flip flops by the back door for at least a few more weeks.

 “All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.” ~Lucy Maud Montgomery

In the Weeds of August

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color."⁠

⁠

―Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting⁠

🌞⁠

Not sure who said that "August is the Sunday of the Summer " but it defines perfectly how I feel about the ticking clock of a month that tumbles us into the real world of fall.  Amidst the downward hurtle of the summer roller coaster I feel like there is so much to do!  Totally counter-intuitive to what summer is supposed to be about but I am chasing in circles to catch up, to find time, to have some summer!  Oh and then there are the weeds! Everywhere!  In my gardens, along the walkways and yes...in my life.  I am working to find a good balance with these weeds.  Yanking can be satisfying but not when you come back out a half hour later to see "they're baaaackk!" 

via Vogue UK

 The Gardens at Camp MP and I are not seeing eye to eye this summer.  It seems as if no amount of time, sweat, energy, scratches, bug bites, thorns ,money or mulch will make my gardens grow without intrusion.

 

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Now, I don't believe in garden perfection--sort of unnatural I think to have every petal smile and every plant and shrub stand tall and upright--would be nice however.  But I would like to see hundreds of hours of care and attention show a little--OK a lot! 

 

via Town and Country

   After a rainy but hopeful  spring where everything popped up magnificently, my hopes for a summer in bloom has been thwarted.  The peonies were MIA this year but the roses came in gloriously and then left as quickly as they could.  Lavender is rather sad along the walkways and bed upon bed in the gardens at Camp MP have grown in leggy and floppy and there is an insidious vine that wants to strangle the joy out each and every resident, and like a bad movie every tug brings it back stronger.

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Every gardener knows there will be weeds, and crazy vines, and bugs that chomp... and sadly there will be plants whose time in the garden is done...

 via Town and Country

 ...but our payoff for all the work and disappointment is always a garden in bloom!

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."

-Hans Christian Anderson

For the gardens at Camp MP so far this season,however, those blooms have yet to make their presence known. My work-worn, not so well manicured, beds have no presence, no grace, no color and hold for this gardener nothing but frustration.  I want a summer's beauty.

 via Traditional Home

I pour over images of gracious gardens and fuss and fret.  

Camp MP

The hydrangeas are trying so hard for me -perhaps I am a spoiled hydrangea hostess, but I have grown not only accustomed, but also expectant that summer and hydrangeas would go hand in hand--like flip flops by the back door and the top down on the convertible.

via Town and Country

Oh and then there are these kids...my lawn and containers have become the Whole Foods of the neighborhood.  I love having them greet me as I pull into the drive each night and it is nice that they have selected my gardens to make their home...but-they don't listen!!!  and their behavior this year is not playing by the rules of the house. Every inch of lawn is chomped on and every flower has been beheaded.  Come on kids learn some garden etiquette!

As always my gardens teach me something, but only if I stop fussing long enough to listen to them.  In the garden, as in my life, sometimes hard work is just hard work.  We have come to demand a gift, a result, a reward for our work...sometimes life and the garden say-not this round.  A garden is a process, a never ending chore that calls to me each day.  I can clip, and dig, and yank, and tug, and prune, and water, and care with all my heart, but nature will decide how many hydrangeas will bloom, how many weeds and vines will push their greedy way through, and how many days of rain and sun are in the forecast.  Deal with it!  and find the joy in that one lone hydrangea head that appears beneath the leaves-treasure it and don't be a greedy gardener for as Pooh said...

  "Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them" 

-Winnie-the Pooh

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The Best of What Might Be-Summer Sails Away

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.” -Charles Bowden

I cannot quite get my head around this summer-I know, I know, I whine about this every Labor Day weekend, but here it is again-a summer sails away. It is going to feel like 100 degrees out there today but still I just flipped the calendar pages to September,yes I still do real calendars! Didn't  I just turn those same pages to June? Is it growing older that make Summertime fly? How often in the past few days have you heard "Can you believe it is Labor Day?" NO! I CANNOT!  Someone go find me June, July... A blink and suddenly the skies grow dark earlier,  scarecrows and even bags of trick or treat candy are everywhere,leaves start to drop...and suddenly September.

via

Labor Day weekend of course always feels like an abrupt and an unwelcome end to summer.  For me this year it is particularly unsettling as summer 2018 was just so grumpy.  The weather was grumpy, the news was grumpy and even the gardens of Camp MP were grumpy-growing out of bounds like a jungle or in some spots showing no effort or joyful blooms at all as the critters ruled and burrowed and chomped away...and I was grumpy along with it.  I can count on two fingers when I got to just sit and do a summer day, lazy days with a book-in fact the pile of books that called in May remain unopened.  Can I get a Do-Over on summer 2018??? Mainly I want to slow it down and not have the golden days be a blur and just hold to "the best of what might be."

via

"Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." -Henry James

Summer after all is supposed to be the time of year that everything slows down, nothing much is scheduled of a serious nature during the summer months- everyone is away, or going away, or just coming back from being away...and in summer it is not only perfectly  acceptable, but also fashionable, to be lazy and just sit with a book.  Nights are slow in coming and have a special air with sounds that open windows welcome in-dogs barking, kids riding by on their bikes, night crickets, and of course baseball on the radio...

via

 September in New England should not to be dismissed, the skies are glorious and the weather rides the change toward sweater weather.  This weekend, however, is a marker, closing the door on "true summer" the season that gives us permission to Go Play Outside.  With Labor Day we have to come in, toss the flip flops aside and put "practical shoes" on--we have to Go Back to School and back to our desks piled high with all the things we said we would get to "after Labor Day". Just this week there  have been subtle signs of the season changing ...a few dry leaves turned on the trees, Mums filling the nurseries, Halloween cards on the racks and my favorite-the "plunking" of acorns as they fall and hit my neighbor's deck.  Mother Nature is serious about her calendar even if I am not.  I cling to summer well into November!

via

Don't get me wrong, I adore  the fall- crisp air, glorious colors, tweeds,and crunchy knits, the scent of cinnamon and  apples, piles of pumpkins, the whole New England bit.  Soon I will start digging out the tired blooms and replace them with  happy faced fall pansies and curly pink flowering kale.  I might even run for the needles and cast on some cables!!

via Frances Valentine

Labor Day, however, means we have to be grown ups again, not such a bad thing but you sort of get used to wearing your summer brain.  The new season also means a new start-every one of us remembers what the day after Labor Day always meant-new shoes, a fresh box of crayons, a new teacher and a brand new year--much more fun than New Year's Day!

 via

 No reason Fall can't welcome in a whole new start-I like the idea!---after this grumpy summer how welcome hitting restart would be-if only!!  but if its OK with everyone I'll delay rowing the boat ashore just yet, and leave my flip flops by the back door for at least a few more weeks.

 “All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.” – Lucy Maud Montgomery

What Wilma Wore

"Fashions fade, style is eternal." Yves Saint Laurent

"A woman is never sexier than when she is comfortable in her clothes." Vera Wang

With August came the Triple H threat-Hazy, HOT, and oh my birds nest hair, Humid!  

Since I'm not at the beach and I have to go out there- despite every instinct telling me to stay inside with a book, I dress to fool myself into cool,wearing whatever will hang loosely, not stick to me, and float along with me all day.

As I zip by a mirror and catch a  drop of perspiration, I glance at who I have been dressing like day in and  day out as the thermostat rises...she never was one of my main fashion muses but perhaps she had a bigger impression on my fashion eye than I thought as I come to the surprising conclusion that- Everything I know about how to dress in summer I learned from... Wilma Flintstone! Highly unlikely Audrey and Wilma ever found themselves in the same couturier fitting room, but there it is in my mirror-Wilma style!

1.  Simple, not a lot of fussy fabric
2.  Light colors-No LBD in Wilma's summer closet I guess
3. Show some shoulder
4. Pile your hair high up on top of your head
3. Bare arms-do we think Wilma had a trainer?
4. Bare legs-cannot even imagine what waxing would be like in BC
5. Bare feet-natch no Jack Rogers in the Stone Age
6. Oh and of course a Simple Strand of ...Pearls

Thanks Wilma  Be cool!

August

Carnation Lily,Lily,Rose-John Singer Sargent 1885-6

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color."―Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

Summer's Treasures

John Singer Sargent

  "Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." -Henry James

Is it growing older, growing up, that make Summertime fly? How often in the past few days have you heard "Can you believe it is Labor Day?" NO! I CANNOT!  Someone go find me July and August please.  I blinked and the calendar said September.

via

Labor Day weekend has always been an abrupt and an unwelcome end to summer.  For me this year it is particularly unsettling as summer moved on once again without me. All I saw of summer days were my painted toes peeking out from my Jacks, rides with the top down coming and going from the office, and the smiling summer breeze through the screen doors.   No sandy feet, no drives along the coast, no long lazy days with a book-in fact the pile of books that called in May remain unopened.   No use whining over lost beach days but...can I get a Do-Over on summer 2017???  This summer has been unsettling, to say the least, for many of us in so many ways, and a catastrophic hurricane as an exclamation point brings us all to a stop-reminding us that the beautiful days should be treasured. It is as the cliches tell us -the small joys that matter.  So, I am holding to summer's treasures.

via

Summer is the time of year that everything slows down, nothing much is scheduled of a serious nature during the summer months- everyone is away, or going away, or just coming back from being away...and in summer it is not only perfectly  acceptable, but also fashionable, to be lazy and just sit with a book.  Nights are slow in coming and have a special air with sounds that open windows welcome in-dogs barking, kids riding by on their bikes, night crickets, baseball on the radio...

 

Via Chance

Of course we will have lots of lovely days ahead-nothing nicer than September in New England. This weekend,however, is a marker, closing the door on "true summer" the season that gives us permission to Go Play Outside.  With Labor Day we have to come in, toss the flip flops aside and put "practical shoes" on--we have to Go Back to School and back to our desks piled high with all the things we said we would get to "after Labor Day". Just this week there  have been subtle signs of the season changing ...a few dry leaves turned on the trees, Mums filling the nurseries, Halloween cards on the racks and my favorite-the "plunking" of acorns as they fall and hit my neighbor's deck.  Mother Nature is serious about her calendar even if I am not.  I cling to summer well into November!

via

Don't get me wrong I adore the fall- crisp air, amazing colors, tweeds, crunchy knits, the scent of cinnamon and  apples, pumpkins, football the whole New England bit. I dream of casting on yummy cable knits on my needles and digging out the tired blooms replacing with smiling fall pansies and curly flowering kale. Labor Day,however, means we have to be grown ups again, not such a bad thing but you sort of get used to wearing your summer brain.  The new season also means a new start-every one of us remembers what the day after Labor day always meant-new shoes, a fresh box of crayons, a new teacher and a brand new year--much more fun than New Year's Day!

via

No reason Fall can't welcome in a whole new start-I like the idea!---after this exhausting summer how welcome hitting restart would be-if only!!  but if its OK with everyone I'll delay rowing the boat ashore just yet, and leave my flip flops by the back door for at least a few more weeks.

via

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.” -Charles Bowden

via

 “All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.” – Lucy Maud Montgomery

Summer's Blink

John Singer Sargent

  "Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." -Henry James

Is it growing older, growing up, that make Summertime fly? How often in the past few days have you heard "Can you believe it is Labor Day?" NO! I CANNOT!  Someone go find me July and August please.  I blinked and the calendar said September.

via

Labor Day weekend has always been an abrupt and an unwelcome end to summer.  For me this year it is particularly unsettling as summer moved on once again without me. All I saw of summer days were my painted toes peeking out from my Jacks, rides with the top down coming and going from the office, and the rare breeze through the screen doors.  The hydrangeas were NOT happy this summer, and I had little time to spend with them to help them along through this hottest driest summer. No sandy feet, no drives along the coast, no long lazy days with a book-in fact the pile of books that called in May remain unopened.   No use whining over lost beach days but...can I get a Do-Over on summer 2016???  

via

Of course, hurricane season willing, we will have lots of lovely days ahead-nothing nicer than September in New England. This weekend,however, is a marker, closing the door on "true summer" the season that gives us permission to Go Play Outside.  With Labor Day we have to come in, toss the flip flops aside and put "practical shoes" on--we have to Go Back to School and back to our desks piled high with all the things we said we would get to "after Labor Day".

 

Via Chance

This summer has been too hot to move too far and water was nowhere to be seen from the skies.  We all groused as we fanned ourselves as if we were southern summer girls.  Just this week there  have been subtle signs of the season changing ...a few dry leaves turned on the trees, Mums filling the nurseries, Halloween cards on the racks and my favorite-the "plunking" of acorns as they fall and hit my neighbor's deck.  Mother Nature is serious about her calendar even if I am not.  I cling to summer well into November!

via

Summer is the time of year that everything slows down, nothing much is scheduled of a serious nature during the summer months- everyone is away, or going away, or just coming back from being away...and in summer it is not only perfectly  acceptable, but also fashionable, to be lazy and just sit with a book.  Nights are slow in coming and have a special air with sounds that open windows welcome in-dogs barking, kids riding by on their bikes, night crickets, baseball on the radio...

via

Don't get me wrong I adore the fall- crisp air, amazing colors, tweeds, crunchy knits, apples, pumpkins, football the whole bit...but Labor Day means we have to be grown ups again, not such a bad thing but you sort of get used to wearing your summer brain.  The new season also means a new start-every one of us remembers what the day after Labor day always meant-new shoes, a fresh box of crayons, a new teacher and a brand new year--much more fun than New Year's Day! No reason it still can't welcome in a new start-I like the idea!--- but if its OK with everyone I'll delay rowing the boat ashore just yet, and leave my flip flops by the back door for at least a few more weeks.

via

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.” -Charles Bowden

via

 “All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.” – Lucy Maud Montgomery

Can I Get a Mulligan!-Time to Row the Boat Ashore

 via

  "Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." -Henry James

How often in the past few days have you heard "Can you believe it is Labor Day?" NO! I CANNOT!  Someone go find me July and August please.

via

Labor Day weekend has always been an abrupt and an unwelcome end to summer.  For me this year it is particularly unsettling as summer moved on without me. All I saw of summer days were my painted toes peeking out from my Jacks and rides with the top down and breezes through the screen doors.  The hydrangeas were happy, but I had little time to spend with them and they let me know by leaping all about and crowding the gardens.  No sandy feet, no drives along the coast, no long lazy days with a book-in fact the pile of books that called in May remain unopened.   Ahh well, no use pouting over lost beach days but...can I get a Mulligan on summer 2015???

 via

Of course we will have lots of lovely days ahead-nothing nicer than September in New England, and the beaches are wonderfully empty...but this weekend closes the door on "true summer" the season that gives us permission to Go Play Outside.  With Labor Day we have to come in, toss the flip flop aside and put "practical shoes" on--we have to Go Back to School and back to our desks piled high with all the things we said we would get to "after Labor Day".

 

Via Chance

There are have been subtle signs of the season changing all week as there always is the last week of August...a few leaves turned on the trees, Mums filling the nurseries, Halloween cards on the racks and my favorite-the "plunking" of acorns as they fall and hit my neighbors deck.  Mother Nature is serious about her calendar even if I am not.  I cling to summer well into November :)

via

Summer is the time of year that everything slows down, nothing much is scheduled of a serious nature during the summer months- everyone is away, or going away, or just coming back from being away...and in summer it is not only perfect acceptable, but also fashionable, to be lazy and just sit with a book.  Nights are slow in coming and have a special air with sounds that open windows welcome in-dogs barking, kids riding by on their bikes, baseball on the radio(another team not mine this summer)...

via

 Don't get me wrong I adore the fall- crisp air, amazing colors, tweeds, crunchy knits, apples, pumpkins, football the whole bit...but Labor Day means we have to be grown ups again, not such a bad thing but you sort of get used to wearing your summer brain.  The new season also means a new start-everyone one of us remembers what the day after Labor day always meant-new shoes, a fresh box of crayons, a new teacher and a brand new year--much more fun than New Year's Day! No reason it still can't welcome in a new start-I like the idea!--- but if its OK with everyone I'll still leave my flip flops by the back door for at least a few more weeks.

via

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.” -Charles Bowden

via

 “All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.” – Lucy Maud Montgomery