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Noon Edition

Seasonal Changes

As the trees and shrubs lose their leaves and their limbs stand naked against the sky, it is interesting to consider the way size and proportion of both living and non-living structures operate in a garden.

Patterns of shadows during sunny days and glimpses of fiery evening sunsets provide us with different perspectives on the landscape. While we mourn the dearth of flowers, new images and dimensions are revealed to us. The beauty of flowers is replaced by forms and shapes of the play of light.

John Donne wrote, "No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace, as I have seen in one autumnal face."

For those of us with a passion for flowers, it can be heart wrenching when killing frosts take them from us. However, as with many types of change and loss, new opportunities emerge.

Stillness and Serenity

Freed from the chores of watering and deadheading, we can savor the stillness and serenity as our flower gardens sleep. There is time to reflect, time to admire the bones of the garden and time to dream of past and future blooms.

Perhaps the adage "absence makes the heart grow fonder" applies also to flowers, predictably seasonal since gardens have been described as metaphors for life. "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven."

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