Summer Slipping (2020)

The light is changing on the terrace, the sunniness getting pushed more to the edge near the northern parapet - a sure sign we are tilting away and the angle is getting lower, the shadows cast by the building growing longer.  The long days are starting noticeably now to slip away.  It was all barely detectable in the run up - the monotony of COVID-19 isolation makes each day so similar to the others that when the calendar switched into September, it was almost startling.

The usual markers of accomplishment, or simply of passage of time, weren't so evident this season - no vacations; trips to the market with its changing produce were few; walks in the park with its cycles of bloom and and fade were rare.

But in the Jardin the rhythms continue - albeit at a delayed pace in some cases.  That hibiscus bud up top only just opened, and budded well after others were cutting and displaying vases of full blooms.  But, whatever, I will accept what I am given; I thought I might have to wait until next year.  Under the maple trio in the corner, the portulaca were quite slow to bloom, and were nowhere near abundant as last year.  Seems they didn't seed so prolifically.  But finally some have, and they are double petaled and a brilliant shade of saffron.

Then there are the ongoing ones, chugging along or back for a repeat burst of energy.

Some of the plants are moving to the next stage of life - flowering, setting seed. Sure signs of Autumn's approach.

...A reminder to plant for Fall and look ahead even to next Spring.

And on a rare trip out into the neighborhood to run errands and pick up some takeout poke bowl, a chance to check on one of the adopted sidewalk tree pits echoes the reaffirming plant life cycles with the progress of the once scrawny public maple trio.

Long days grow shorter.  Further to the last post, little to show for the season but the life and growth of the plants - I just need to switch to a plant metric of accomplishment, it seems, to have anything to show for my efforts this year.  But maybe that's for the better.  As many have commented, maybe we were all overdue for a pause in order to come back into some kind of balance.