Giving summer the bum's rush

Casa Blanca Lily

By August, the stores are already filled with Halloween candy and back-to-school stuff. The summer clothing (what's left of it) has been hanging on clearance racks for weeks. If you need a bathing suit now, you're out of luck; the best selection was in February. It's a shame to rush the seasons like we do, especially when it's been a short, chilly summer in our top left corner of the country.

The garden still has happy bees and colorful flowers-- dahlias, zinnias, hydrangeas, late roses and the last of the lilies. Even so, there's a winding down feeling, like a big party with tired guests. I whacked off clumps of flopping brown daisies yesterday, and had to admit the bare spots in the flower beds are kind of nice, making you appreciate what's left.

The first hints of fall are here: a few colored leaves on trees, dark mornings, dew on the windshield, and a bumper crop of spiders in the yard. When John leaves for work at 5:30, I hear him banging the broom around the arbor to clear the path, so the webs don't plaster his clean glasses on the way to the car.

This week we've had a few clear mornings, and looking up from my computer I could see the yellow moon sink behind the Olympic mountains. It makes you think of fall. A mama raccoon went by with three (teenage) babies. She looked pretty sick of them. It's been so, so quiet in this neighborhood, like the eye of the hurricane. No loud power tools or lawn mowers (the grass is all dried up.) But next week, the school buses will be roaring by the house again.

September is a get-things-done time in Seattle, and by October folks are holed up for the long, wet months ahead. It's a good time for travel, and we're planning a little trip to Cannon Beach sometime in September, just to have a look at the Pacific Ocean before winter sets in. And maybe an ice cream cone down the road at Tillamook.

Fall hydrangea