I never get tired of rainy days. This is especially true after such a long, hot, dry summer. Lawns have greened up, newly-transplanted shrubs and perennials are settled nicely for the winter and I’m finally getting a bit of order inside my house.

My greenhouse is a big mess of everything that needs to find a winter resting place.

I’m almost finished with the potting of geraniums yanked from their summer pots and window boxes. They should be okay for a few mild freezes inside the plastic enclosure. Hopefully, I’ll get them inside soon to an unheated yet frost-free room.

There are some subtle yet lovely fall color changes in garden world. One favorite in the perennial bed is Amsonia. Also known as the blue star plant, it has a three-season interest. It’s a neat, ferny mound in spring followed by star-shaped blue flowers. The fall color is a bright gold that is quite striking as other perennials have, sadly, seen better days. I wish I could remember where I got mine so I could direct my readers.

My friend Sharlee and I often remark that our memory bank has had too many withdrawals.

My vegetable seed plantings have all germinated in the hoop house. It looks promising for some winter harvests.

I had some lettuce plants that went to flower in a tangled mess of mulch and weeds. Finding re-seeds seemed hopeless. I cut a few flower heads at about a foot long and stuck them in the soil of the aforementioned hoop house. They dropped seed and I found several baby lettuces. How fun is that?

I’ve had it with pump sprayers. The ready to use Bobbex comes in one. I get a couple of uses and then have to use opened paper clips to unclog the spray head. Often, in a fit, I cut it off with my Felcos. I’m ashamed to admit how many I have, thinking they will magically fix themselves.

As a last resort I put the mixture into a regular watering can and slosh it on the deer favorites. They have chomped things that were previously resistant. For example, gold flame honeysuckle. I had to special order it for a customer as she admired it elsewhere. It has never been eaten but this year all is lost. The little jerks did not even have to bend down but enjoyed it up the trellis as far as they could reach.

Now that Halloween has come and gone, skeletons and goblins can be put away as yard decor and Christmas will be everywhere. Seed catalogs will be in mailboxes. It seems commercial seasons get longer and more involved every year.

I was an adult young woman when the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King Jr. were killed for political reasons. I was either naive or the internet had yet to be born but I do not recall joking about and/or diminishing the importance of those three events.

Not so with the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi. What’s become of us as a society that a son of a former president can make a Halloween costume joke about the event?

I can’t remember an event in recent news that has left me so saddened and actually sick. It’s difficult to go about my usual happy, busy life!