Splashes of October

Lemony pumpkin leaves of the Indonesian cherry fall gently to color our walkway. The red maple is brightening, promising to be just as beautiful as the picture from last year shows. Out come jackets and hoodies as the temperature drops. Requests for ice cream after school change to hot chocolate. Over-head an expansive sky is as blue as ocean depths. Last night a perfect harvest moon shone its silvery light on all of us leaving church and heading home to light our fires.

The susquehanna camellias are beginning to bloom. I took a picture of one blossom on the “Picture This” app to check the spelling. Among several other names for this glossy-leaved shrub with delicate pink flowers are “Shi-shi Gashira,” “October Magic,” and “Winter Rose.” They’re all pretty names but I really like “winter rose.” As winter draws near the camellia “roses” will brighten everything.

Thick clusters of nandina berries promise a wealth of bright Christmas decorations, though right now they are dull red-brown. Our cats slide through their own special little tunnels through the nandina hedge or lie curled in clumps of border grass soaking up a spot of sun.

The jasmine vine on the mailbox pine is greening again. At last. The poor thing had turned almost entirely yellowish and sick. Charles took leaf samples to UGA Extension Office and learned that the vine was covered with miniscule mites and needed a heavy dose of broad spectrum mite insecticide. Charles wouldn’t have been strong enough this time last year to have gone for a consultation, much less follow through with the spraying. Assuming that most growth nearby was probably beset with evil mites, Charles proceeded to spray lantana and other foliage. Now, six weeks later, the jasmine is greening while the lantana looks as if another dose is necessary. We even discovered, to our delight, that the jasmine has put forth three beautiful little yellow blossoms that, in other years, covered it profusely. We take those three as a promise for much more in February.

We are wearing stickers today (Friday) proclaiming we are Georgia voters. How blessed we are to be able to vote freely and safely! We want to be part of keeping it that way. We are not shy about naming our candidate for president. Charles wears his Trump hat everywhere he goes which brings up mostly positive reactions. He has put Trump signs at strategic crossroads in Grady and Thomas counties, about thirty, I think. And, of course, no one has to guess who our candidate is when they drive by our yard! I understand that many people think Trump is all ego and brashness. But we see him as a vigorous defendant of our constitution, a very authentic, sensible man who keeps his promises, as evidenced by his former four years.

Whoever you vote for, please vote!

Splashes of October: Pumpkins on the front steps, Georgia football on Saturdays, dry magnolia leaves skittering across the driveway, the big old sweetgum at the church beginning to blush, and sunny goldenrods along the roadsides. Anticipation is building for our annual trip to our fall family reunion in Habersham County. Splashes of October will be even brighter there!

He hath made everything beautiful in his time: Ecclesiastes 3:11