This is a repeat of a previous entry but I thought worth repeating in light of our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and the beautiful weather we have had. I have always liked the richness of late afternoon colors but this time of year we are treated to a whole season of these colors, albeit Alberta is just usually a few weeks of "Indian Summer" These shots are both from my yard and
a walk along the river valley.

September 19, 2005


  Lingering edge of summer…beautiful morning, dappled light sitting on the back porch, red-green clay pot with matching hanging ivy, wicker basket pots. Houseplants outdoors for the summer, repotted, divided, rejuvenated. The Boston fern originally from mother-in-law’s 1940 plant, again in three, just before the threat of frost to force the inside retreat.

Full harvest moon and already I have has my first phone call. " When can you come ? " on my next work stint in the Canadian arctic, this time in the Baffin region, a small Inuit community of 600, with an eleven letter name I cannot pronounce and have yet to locate on the map.

Summer in Edmonton has not even come to an end with the autumnal equinox of September 21, nor has the first frost arrived and the trees are mixtures of green, yellows and touches of red.

Pockets of beauty, corners of color and texture in my yard that I try and maintain as I begin the fall clean-up.

Roma tomato plants beginning to ripen with oblong fruit like mini- green pears peering through the circular wire cage, three bushy plants in a row on a south facing wall, grown in a bed too dry other years, but now with the soaker hose from the rain barrel managed to survive.

Persistence beauty and abundance.

Potted nodding faces of yellows, pinks and blues of pansies and mini-violets amid green foliage that wilted and announced daily the need for nourishment, but quickly filled again the container with glory. I pull off seed pods deceased blooms and " dead head " to produce more, and wonder at the validity of this work, trying to preserve this lingering edge of summer and wonder at the transitions to come.