Cosmos and Other Wonders

There is something about the lacy tracery of the foliage of cosmos that is so appealing to me at the end of summer going into fall. It’s as if there is hope after all for a smack of beauty when I least expect it, because when the flowers bloom off of those swaying stems I’m almost at a loss for words. (I said almost).  When this happens to be within my view, I feel overjoyed that something magnificent has pierced my veneer of cynicism with its stunning blooms. Apparently, the honeybee pictured on one thinks the same thing. And who wouldn’t with that center of golden goodness in the middle of all that deep pink?

Although the cosmos signals the end of summer and the onset of cooler weather, I’ve also felt reinvigorated with inspiration after seeing them blooming. Afterwards, I want to attend to the sagging, fading display of nature’s bounty that has seen better days. As they are covered by aggressive lemon balm or giant grasses I still want to tart up each flower if I can, to tidy up the rush of decay and perhaps halt its progression a bit. Although I know that time moves forward, I still sit outside in wonderment at how glorious everything still looks with leaves askew and lots of messes caused by marauding chickens digging up previously neat areas to find the perfect bug. But here and there I sit with eyes wide and heart filled with anticipation of this next phase of the growth that’s happening before my very eyes. Nature has so many tricks and they are all so stupendous that even in the bleakest of winter days there is something splendid to admire silently from my windows inside our cozy cottage. But certainly this last explosion of color from the cosmos grouping in front will be something I look at every day this month. For as quickly as they’ve appeared, they will disappear with the colder nights and days. By then almost everything will draw back the tendrils they put out in growth spurts and die off. Some lucky perennials will just lose their leaves. Then all the surfaces will look very different for the long, wintry months.

But little by little spring growth pushes through soil that looks dead and my hopes are reborn yet again. The cosmos flowers help me get ready to let all this beauty go, with full knowledge that it won’t be gone forever. I can plant more next season with any luck and a bit of rain, but not as much as this season. We have so much beauty around us to soak up living here at the House of Cluck-Cluck. Although it’s such a small house in comparison to what we’ve owned in the past, there is such grandeur here outside in the surrounding gardens that we’ve tended with such loving care, and that is far more important to us, for that is what feeds our souls.