It is definitely fall. I've been enjoying crunching and shuffling through leaves on my way to and from fall meetings. The air is cooler, especially in the mornings, and I'm dealing the "it's barely above freezing when I leave the house and almost summer weather in the afternoon; what do I wear" conundrum.
Earlier today I was working at my desk and noticed that it had suddenly become very noisy outside. I looked out the window to discover a wild windstorm had sprung up. The noise was the wind, the trees, and the dry leaves being spun about everywhere. It was wild and wonderful.
I started to prepare the garden for winter, which really means pulling up and cutting down plants that are pretty much dead. I left some that are still flowering and doing pretty well despite some frosty nights. The petunias especially have surprised me this year; they not only grew taller than usual, but they're hanging despite the cold.
That is where the mystery came in. As I was dealing with some plants, I noticed other plants had recently started growing. in one area of the spider flower (Cleome) pot, there were little green shoots. I don't know what they are or where they came from or why they started now. Then I was removing the dead leaves from the balloon plant (side note: their leaves turn colours in the fall, and I did not know that, so it was an unexpected pleasure; also, they're perennials, which I also did not know), I found a small green clump in the middle of the plant. Finally, as I was dealing with some of the unknown flowers, bought because they were pretty, I found something that looks like grass growing beside them, tangled a bit with their branches. I untangled it gently as I removed the dying plants.
So three bits of green growth where I did not expect it. Except the balloon flowers, I'm not entirely sure what's growing. It's my fall mystery!
