One month ago, the situation was bleak.
I had returned from vacation in late July to a front-yard pumpkin patch of despair. Small plants. Few vines. No flowers. And certainly no fledgling pumpkins. I feared all might be lost. I grasped for a reason. Was it the cold, wet June? The new brand of seed I was trying? The gardener to whom I has assigned the care and feeding of my babies (my daughter assured me she had followed my instructions to the letter).
Assignation of blame was futile. There was nothing to do but break out the fertilizer and hope for the best.
Then suddenly, the tide turned. Flowers appeared and soon after, a couple of small promising pumpkins. Nothing approaching the specimens of recent years, but large enough to hold eyes and an evil grin. I rejoiced. Halloween might be saved after all!
And then I went away again for a long weekend. This time, upon my return, I was greeted not by a pumpkin patch of despair, but by three new growing pumpkins; one of which, a tiny one for whose survival I had feared, has now reached basketball size. My heart is full.
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
I had returned from vacation in late July to a front-yard pumpkin patch of despair. Small plants. Few vines. No flowers. And certainly no fledgling pumpkins. I feared all might be lost. I grasped for a reason. Was it the cold, wet June? The new brand of seed I was trying? The gardener to whom I has assigned the care and feeding of my babies (my daughter assured me she had followed my instructions to the letter).
Assignation of blame was futile. There was nothing to do but break out the fertilizer and hope for the best.
Then suddenly, the tide turned. Flowers appeared and soon after, a couple of small promising pumpkins. Nothing approaching the specimens of recent years, but large enough to hold eyes and an evil grin. I rejoiced. Halloween might be saved after all!
And then I went away again for a long weekend. This time, upon my return, I was greeted not by a pumpkin patch of despair, but by three new growing pumpkins; one of which, a tiny one for whose survival I had feared, has now reached basketball size. My heart is full.
It's the most wonderful time of the year.