Detective Plants Fall

My brain is feeling a few cards short of a full deck tonight.  So I may as well just get after it, and let you read ‘em and weep.  That’s what friends are for, right?

The thing I’ve really been thinking about is our current schedule. We are on the short-day segment of the rotation.  I sure didn’t say much about the Fall Equinox when it actually equinnoxed itself.  Or whatever it does.  But since it occurred on September 22, our days are shorter than our nights.  And they will be….  until the Vernal Equinox on March 20.  Of course, our very shortest day comes and goes quickly on December 21 this year.   So… we… my friends… are in the dark.  And out in the cold.

But Fall gets a bad rap more often than not.  People think of it as a time when everything dies… and turns brown, gray, and withered.  But really.  Reeeeallly… we should call this time of the year “Rebound” or something.  Confucius say… “Fall down seven times. Get up eight.”

Most of our green things are just taking a nap to be fresh and ready for the Spring.   And they are pretty smart about it.  Plants know that when the days shrink in time… it is when they need to shrink up too.  So.  They sleep, while the brownness turns to composted nutrients.  And in the Spring… those plants wake up, pull out their straws…. and suck it all in again.

But. Some things do well in the fall.  Like certain flowers.  Mums…..  get all mummy for example.  They are called hearty plants.  You know. When I was little, I thought  they were Hardy Plants.  Like the Hardy Boys…. and Nancy Drew… and such.    Same thing….. when I heard we were going to eat a hearty stew.  I thought it some how related to those boys in the mystery books.  Frank and Joe Hardy.

Oh Autumn.  Other things get busy too.  Witches craft like Martha Stewart.  And…. pumpkins patch their worn out clothes.  How about the Haunted?  The Haunted house the orphans.

Oh oh.  That just hit me.  I’m an Orphan now.  Dang it.  An orphan in her 50s.

On the bright side… I might meet some new friends.  Like Little Annie, or Oliver Twist.   I’ll need to buy a black scrappy hat… or get a curly perm.  And I’ll have to practice up on my English accent.  “Please sir. I want some more.”  And with that accent going… I probably would have called my Mom…. Me Mum.

Like the Mums.  In the Fall.  On the short-day schedule.

When things haven’t really died….  they are simply….   rebounding.

And right there.  There you have it.