THE BLUES OF FALL
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The Gulf Coast (Houston) has precious few really blue days. Summer
is so humid, the clouds heavy and the blues paled, but when the humidity
drops and the temps sit nicely in the 70's and 80's, we enjoy some of the
bluest skies you'll ever see.
We know not to expect the multi-red and orange colored leaves
of New England, frosty Colorado mountain peaks rising in the distance,
or rushing water gurgling over round river rocks. As the season
develops, seldom do we have snowflakes larger than the barest of
imagination, and the thinnest skin of ice sends motorists
skidding and school children home. Anemic snowmen are few
and far between.
But we do have marvelous weeds. Lady Bird Johnson would
cringe at this description, but in our yards we sometimes forget
that some of these nature-provided wonders are bonafide wild
flowers.
For my memory-challenged Alz husband Bob to press
in a remembrance book, we gathered nine different yard flowers:
flame-red hammili, deep pink knock-out roses, multicolored
yellow, orange, pink and blue "squirrel-planted" lantana,
rosy-red impatiens, a tiny yellow (no name) flower dodging the mower,
lavender wandering jew, rustic red shrimp plant, iridescent purple
bougainvillea, and blue white-mouth dayflowers. A large yellow and
purple globe droops from the banana trees, and a strange yellow
elongated bloom hides within the large cut leaves of the
philodendron plant shadowing the pond. New this year are
entire fields of goldenrod along the neighboring road to the highway.
So I have a pretty picture for you. Imagine the cloud-free blue,
blue sky, a field of golden goldenrod and a smattering of the
blue dayflower, the latter a small orchid shaped bloom the color
of the sky. Tallow tree leaf disks are the closest to turn to autumn
colors and float midst the leaves and seed pods that have fallen
from the mimosa tree into the koi pond providing a playground
for skirtering and swishing orange koi gasping for air and playing
peek-a-boo under the leaves. Blue dragonflies, sometimes coupled
into twos, dip and flutter between the overgrown arrow root
water plants. Across the fence, a pecan or two thump to the
ground arousing two scurrying squirrels under the watch of a
mockingbird and scolded by a blue jay.
Now add a soft lounge pillow, a generous application of
mosquito repellant, a good book, and a glass of chardonnay --
Ah-h-h-h-h.
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