Endings

Today is the last day of summer. After three long months of sweat and mosquitos, the mornings cool and suddenly summer is at its end.

Late flowers are abundant. Perennial heliopsis lasts well into autumn and annual pentas are at their peak. Impatiens continue to seed themselves about, although their sprouts will not mature by frost.

Asters are among the last to flower and they bloom until mid October. Bees adore these plants and you can hear them humming from inside the house.

Trees begin to change color. The buckeye along the path is among the first to turn, a reminder that life is a cycle of birth and death.

Not much has changed in the garden in memory of my Dad. Today is the anniversary of his death. I miss him.