September Sunshine

In my last post, dated earlier in September, I said that it felt like fall. Well, that is no longer true. September returned to its usual weather, with warm sunshine and clear blue days. Lately, it's been downright summery, with temperatures in the 90's this weekend. It's hard to imagine that frost can normally be expected in about three weeks. Now I love autumn, but I wouldn't mind if summer stuck around for awhile.

Also in my last post, I showed a chrysalis from one of my monarch butterflies. I raised four of them indoors this year, gathering them from my milkweed as tiny caterpillars. Well, they've all flown the coop already, and I sure miss them! I was busy on the days when they "hatched", and wasn't able to catch photos of the process. If you are around when they first eclose from the chrysalis, it's much easier to get them to pose because it takes them awhile to get comfortable with flying. That's the best time to pose them for photos. They'll walk on your fingers, but aren't quite ready to fly. But I missed it this time. This one had come out some time earlier, so after I took this open wing shot, she was off like a shot.

To me, September is a time to savor the garden. Many annuals are peaking, the weather is usually pleasant, but there's a sense of time running out. You just know it won't last much longer, so you want to gather in the last of these halcyon days.

Many plants put on a bit a of a renewal this time of year. My roses put out some more blossoms, and the herb garden is quite exuberant. The snapdragon patch puts out a fresh crop of color.

But the September highlights are always the same here in Robin's Nest. It's time for zinnias, and sunflowers, and dahlias. Funny, but these are some of my favorites, as you can tell. 

I was thinking about ending this post with an entreaty that September never leave me. But then I remembered what comes next, October! Now there's a month to love. As Anne of Green Gables would say "I'm glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers", and I couldn't agree more. But September is fine indeed.