First Signs...

The first signs of fall a seen this morning in our front yard. The top photo is a maple that has started to loose leaves a bit early. Still I like to highlights on the top.

Bottom is a burning bush that is just about to get going. These seem to be the first leaves to turn in our yard. We always know the locust in the back yard is last.

Last Day of Summer

Today, Saturday September 21, 2013 is the last full day of summer. The azaleas in front of the house are beginning to show it too. This one is a nice bronze while the other one looks like it needs to be fed!

We have all enjoyed the front garden this year. The garden was Bobbie's complete diversion. Once she got started weeding, planting, moving, building or whatever she would keep going even after dark. She completely lost track of time. Her mother liked to say she took after her father in that way. So when friends help, it really means a lot.

Special thanks go out to Andy who with some help from Mariann has kept the garden weeded and neat. It's one less thing for us to worry about around here. They let me participate by calling me in for hazard removal like poison ivy and hornets' nests. Andy, Mariann and the Ballet Ladies have been such a blessing to us over this past year.

Here's proof of the care, a cleome, an annual that is self seeing from the year before. For these to bloom in September, you have to leave them alone earlier in the year. Thanks!

Freshman Moves In

Sarah moved in to her dorm yesterday and starts classes on Tuesday at Rutgers University. Here's one of the directional signs. Sarah is studying acting at one of the top programs in the country the Mason Gross School. Her roommate is a friend from Pittsburgh. This is a great achievement that is a reward for her determination and drive.

We drove to New Brunswick, NJ on Friday and had dinner at a very nice Southern Cuisine/Soul Food restaurant near the campus. When the waitress found out Sarah was an entering Freshman, she brought out ice cream in a cup served on a platter. Written in strawberry sauce on the platter was "Welcome to RU!"

After dinner we went to a nearby Bed Bath and Beyond for a hold order of extra bedding. Next door was a Barnes and Noble with the same interior layout at the one in Cranberry near our home. I took Sarah back to the children's section, pointed to the stage and said, "this is just like where it all got started." When Sarah was about five she loved to go there and perform for then three year old John and infant Janine as well as Mom, Dad and Nana. She even got to put on a show for Grammy and Gramps once when they were visiting from Lincoln.

It was a full-circle moment, but I knew it was not a "finishing" moment. No, no if anything it was the start of something new.