Boo!

     

I snapped this picture just before Jack Frost crept in to kiss my annuals good-bye.   The temps had not dropped below 36 all season until last night when the mercury plummeted to 22, affording very little chance for annuals to survive.  But it is time.  I almost finished all the Autumn chores before Jack's deadline.  Tomorrow I will put away my garden accents and dig up the dahlia tubers for storage.  My back is aching and ready for winter's rest.  My cardboard carton of garden clippings, notes to self, magazines, garden maps, plant labels etc is in total disarray.  There will be many chilly nights ahead for bringing order there.  As a schoolteacher, I loved my work, but looked forward to summer as a time to renew my energy for another year. There was a rhythm there.  And so it is with gardening.  But March will find me poking around where the snow has receded to see if the helleborus likes the spot I moved it to.  And so will begin another season.........