IT'S WONDER~ FALL

EVeRwHeRe I go, I feel, smell and see Fall...it's in the Air. It's absolutely WonderFall. In South Texas it's that time of the year when you wonder if it's ever going to rain and when will it be chilly enough to light the fireplace. But I find the Fall to be a time of reflection and rest...for the garden that is, not necessarily me...except for the reflection. Time to put the garden to sleep and let Mother Nature take it's course with no guidance from you, the master of your garden. Though I love my sun loving roses,

my cool weather flower friend is the bougainvilla. See mine below that I have toted around from home in Texas City, where I lived by the water, all the way to San Antonio where it still flourishes. It's beautiful...but it's a thorny little sucker!

Funny thing about the bougainvilla. The more you mistreat it...the better it flourishes. Mine is all "mooshed" with a jasmine growing on a fence that I had built for Tag, my son and daughter-in-awe's beautiful Boxer. I thought he would be visiting a lot when he was a puppy and I had the great idea to kennel him as a little pup so he couldn't make a mess in the house or my backyard gardens since my home is rather "girlish" shall we say. Think pale yellow living room and pale carpet... but oh, no, Tag came visiting with his own quilt pallet and pillow, found his own spot in the corner by the books where he would rest and sleep and he didn't bother a soul. He still sleeps on that spot while we take time out for a movie or shopping and waits for us patiently to return. I don't think Tag has ever gone near the dog kennel designed especially for him. Tag is a very special and talented dog. When given the choice, he's always going to take the baseball field as his playground of choice and indoors vs. outdoors. See, Mom, he can shake hands...:-)

So Tag's kennel has now become a "catch all" plant hospital. This bougainvilla is a cutting from my Mom's and every now and again I 'll throw it a bit of food and water, but most of the time I just ignore it and it provides me beautiful blooms as the nights become chillier and the days shine. The beautiful bougainvilla blooms always remind me that Fall is in the air. But then visiting the pumpkin patches reminds me that it's time to celebrate the arrival of a new season and with the little tykes out searching for their perfect pumpkin, with Mom and Dad in tote with their own personal choices, it's easy for the little ones to become distracted with something as simple as a leaf blowing along the path, which is why I think it should be a national holiday.

Isn't this little pumpkin' eater adorable and soooo typical ~ take him looking for pumpkins and he gets distracted with leaves! When I took my little ones to look for their pumpkins, but never with the intention of cooking the pumpkin, it was always for decorating the doorstep. No decorating with the knife, though, always with the magic marker. This family of jack-o-lanterns lives a couple of miles from me and I'm in awe of the creativity put into each jack-o-lantern.

Later I moved on to store bought, pre-lit, hard plastic pumpkins. I still have my sons' pumpkins and we always had 3 little pumpkins sitting on our door step just under the Fall Wreath that would hang on the front door changing from a summer wreath to an autumn foliage. Sometimes I don't have an actual wreath but always sign the door with a little spot of seasonal color to greet those who visit with a little season reminder. In 1975 there was one little pumpkin, then 1977, two little pumpkins (3 counting me) to show the world how many pumpkins were in our little house and now I have another out on the porch that greets my trick or treaters, to indicate a new little pumpkin to our family, my precious daughter-in-awe, Lauren.

Why I ever thought it would be one pumpkin per person for our family, I'll never know. Now I almost have a whole family of pumpkins, FOUR. Sorry Tag...just didn't count you in. It's what I do. Many hours have been spent helping my boys, over the years, figure out what they want to be on Halloween. One of my favorite was when my youngest son, Sam, had a neighbor friend who had a terrible accident and had her neck broken. Nothing doing...he was going to keep the spirit of trick-or-treat going. He dressed as a ho-bo and Kristen dressed as an angel using her "halo" that stabilized her neck as sort of a halo with her angel wings. Of course, we always have our little goblins coming around for the treat and I like to have a little something on hand for them if they venture to the doorway, though usually I don't keep a candy stash. Dimes, pennies, little surprise bag of treats...they don't care. It's like they just want to hear the "kerplunk" that goes in their bag and off they go...on for their next surprise. I continue to be amazed at just how pretty our little witches are becoming. Think they are watching Runway Model already? Aren't these two of the prettiest little witches you've ever seen...and they are all the way over in Australia!

In my early days of motherhood at pumpkin time, searching for a recipe to cook the pumpkin after Halloween, was quite a treasure hunt before the days of the internet. Truly, look in all your cookbooks and see if you can find where it tells you HOW to cook the inside of the pumpkin. Couldn't find it in mine...bought the pumpkin but off to the market to fetch a can of pumpkin filling to do the pie. Look like it tasted pretty good to those who indulged! Fall lends itself to a time of reflection and an appreciation of nature. To me, Fall is about harvest, reflection bringing about change, foliage and the changing of the blooms, leaves and blossoms.

It reminds me that with the change of seasons, we are reminded of the cycles of life that change as quickly as a river filled, moves on, curves and follows its path.

Here today, then it's gone and tomorrow brings about another change. Is this true of a whole lifetime? Funny how I welcome the change of our seasons (which some days can only mean the difference of 10 degrees) but tend to resist the change in my life. I find myself wanting to hold on to things of the past, though I'm working on it and trying to do better, because guess what? Something really great may be just up the road ahead! Everything in my life that has changed, to today, has turned out to bring happier times, better times and each change becomes a little easier.

My mother and my grandmother used to say: "Everything comes full circle. " I know that to be true now... I am older and wiser though at times I still tend to resist...to change that is, in my personal life. Even from looking at my flowers and trees

and enjoying the change from summer to fall, I know they can't hold on to their beautiful leaves, blooms and blossoms...the same ones are not going to reappear but the new ones that return may just be prettier than the first blooms.

While I don't want to change or leave where I am...I am exactly where I would rather be! Happy Halloween, Wonder-Fall to All.

~Enjoying the Fall at The Plaza, San Antonio, TX.~

~Babs