Alberta weather is pretty consistently frosting every night. When I got back from my weekend drive to Rocky I was somewhat dismayed to discover that several potted plants that I had covered on the back deck were quite dessimated by the frost. These are some of shots of them from late September. Yesterday as it hit about 13oC for a few hours and had a chance to do some more raking, clipping and digging of those  hollyhock stems and final small baby potatos, I thought of how gardens are great lessons in holding on and letting go.

This is part of a piece I wrote last year about this time.

"May I remember thankfulness of your presence, as I sip my orange juice and morning coffee or tend the fading garden and prune the cherry and wild rose bushes, now with leaves turned, and branches bare, shorn and discarded. Shorn and discarded, the process of pruning, cutting away diseased limbs, a necessary process, dear Lord, as I struggle to hold onto the last remnants of summer and resist the change of the coming season of darknessRemind me, in gentle moments that I am but the pot and you, the potter, I am the delicate colored sea shell but you control the waves, the tides and the seasons. As I move towards the light of morning in appreciation and thoughtfulness, abba father and wise mother, I will listen. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know"