HAILING THE SEASON GOODBYE

September usually is a great harvest month in Colorado and having just recently returned to gardening after a two-year absence providing cancer care, I was really looking forward to bragging this season.   I was going to post pictures of a beautiful abundance of ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, peas and beans, as well as show off late season blooming flowers.  But like cancer treatment and care, sometimes the best laid plans must be set aside.  Versatility is what is required, especially here in Colorado.

As you can see, the pictures posted below do not boast of a bountiful garden.  Instead, they depict the beginning of the end due to a month of hail storms.  The last one in late August took out what remained of the garden and also shredded and destroyed several beloved perennials.  I’m a bit ambivalent about it all.  Yes, I worked hard this year to bring the garden back to life after two seasons of neglect.  But I didn’t cry or throw a fit as I helplessly stood at my patio window, watching Mother Nature batter her own children into the ground.  Really, what could I do anyway?  I’ve been altered over the last two years – I’m just not the same person in so many ways.  This is what the cancer of loved ones has done to me – it’s made me calmer, quieter, more accepting of things I cannot change.  Cancer has made me appreciate the brief beauty and small harvest my garden did offer this season.  And as I watched the garden go under, I knew in my heart it would regenerate next year.  That is the way of life.  Come early spring, I’ll be gung-ho and anxious to mix my hands in manure and dirt.  For now, I’m back to getting manicures again.

And now off to autumn, which really is my favorite time of year.  I’ve ordered fall bulbs for both my niece and me from an heirloom center where all the bulbs are handpicked.  They’ll be delivered in October, at which time Christie and I will get back into the garden, however briefly, until spring arrives.

Runoff from the late August hail storm directly in front of our house.

The retention pond next to our house began overflowing and we were under an early warning for flood evacuation.  Thankfully our basement did not flood and Mother Nature calmed down just in time to prevent us from having to hike up the hill to get to drier ground.

There was so much hail in the retention pond the ducks had to walk on top of it.  Ha ha!  

Our yard was covered in hail

No, it's not Christmas -- it's just August in Colorado!