It's Fall

Hi,
I'm about to surrender to the seasonal change and move my light weight summer clothes into storage for the next forever. This time of year depresses the hell out of me.

I don't like to see my garden die it's slow, horrible death. Everything is covered with frost in the morning and starting to wilt in the worst way. I know I'll have to plan a day to dig up the canna & elephant ear tubers to store for the winter or they will rot in the cold earth. The tall grasses will stay until the spring but all the irises and lilies will have to be cut down. No more blooms to look forward to, no more blossoms to oooh & aaah over for months and months. Yes the fall colours are pretty but they fade too quickly, leaving a mess of leaves everywhere to rake and clean up out of the pond. Just more work in my opinion than they are worth.

It's dark now at 5:30pm. By 7:30 at night I feel like I should be getting ready for bed. It's dark when I wake up. Was fall always this gloomy? I think not, but every year it gets harder for me to deal with the damp cold as it creeps into my bones and stays until April. Wearing 5 layers of clothes doesn't seem to keep me any warmer. Thank goodness my husband is a furnace and I have him to radiate heat in my direction. Speaking of furnace, our thermostat is on the fritz so we're waiting for a heating-guy on Monday to set up a new thermostat or relay (I'm not sure what the issue is). I can turn the heat on, no problem, but it doesn't shut off at all. Last night I forgot to turn if off and by 2am it was almost 80° in the house. I woke up in a sweat, with a headache. That was the end of that nights' sleep. Can you tell Fall makes me cranky?

Planning to get through the winter is an event all it's own. I try setting up 'spring-like' events to get me past the cold. The Philadelphia Flower Show is a favorite. We are taking an Atlantic crossing cruise in April. Hopefully in December we will get down to Florida for a few days of sun & sand. These trips keep me from going completely insane over the pending doom & gloom of Fall and Winter. I wish we lived in the Caribbean but I think island living is not going to fit my husband at all. At least not full time.

I shall survive.... but I still wish it was April, not November next month.

xox
m