THIS TIME

over the kitchen, one black walnut is bare
the other’s just beginning to turn yellow

10 pumpkins wait beside the driveway
even before I collect squashes and gourds
from the garden

autumn touches, make my Lady of Spices happy
chrysanthemums and a few poppies
reset to barrels and pots around the barn and kitchen entry

the mums in the barrels so gorgeous
next to the pumpkin-filled wheelbarrow
the harvest in a wheelbarrow – eggplants, too
or vines in the compost

our blooming cardinal flower
makes me wish more had survived, even just one, to remind us

poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson

~*~

Garden 1

For more of my home and garden poems, click here.

ONE BRUSH STROKE OR ROLLER AT A TIME

One of the places I’ll admit there’s progress is in the realm of house paint. The mere fact you can go in and have a custom color on the spot that will match one you had mixed earlier is a huge advance. No more guessing. And that’s even before we get to latex, which cleans up with water, rather than oil-based or lead-infused paints.

No more color chips that were way off what showed up on the walls. Oh, how I remember my mother’s lamenting on that one, especially when they’d hired a family friend who was part of a professional painting crew. She hated the color, especially after they tried to correct it.

Now, if the blue tape only worked so well.