Spring(fall)

Week after week through the Florida summer the sun beats down too hot through heavy wet-blanket air. Plants wilt by midday and we all jump quickly from box to air-conditioned box, escaping to the high-pressure cool of our energy intensive indoor habitats. But, then, from one day to the next, the gods forgive us, releasing their fury to other parts of the world and opening the way for Edenic delight. Fall in Florida brings eternal spring. The air cools as if a global compressor has hummed into action. Flowers appear and the pale green of overheated vegetation sinks into a richer hue of renewed vegetable growth. And so, last night the new weather arrived; it had blown in through the afternoon, you could see it in the clouds whose heavy mass began to fade and lighten and wisp away by sunset. And it remains today, where you can see it in the grass, the complexion of the landscape. Welcome spring.

This week we faced challenges in school as fourth grade came with new faces and new teachers and some of the same old problems. We had solved them once, in other quiet ways, but changes in the school made old solutions worthless and so new ones had to be devised. In the process, Maxim was asked to talk about her experiences to adults in an adult setting with grown up language and she answered with a clarity and a grace and generosity that made me proud to be her father. And she took part in figuring out solutions, and we believe, for the time being, until things change again, we have arrived at a solution that serves the circumstances. Maxim also measured for the string orchestra this week and has been assigned a viola, which she picks up next week. This week, like the sudden arrival of spring, Noah began to draw. From one day to the next. As if he had been doing it his whole life. We bought him a journal during the summer to write in and he wrote in it once and decided that was "too boring." Then it sat until Tuesday, when the drawing began. He will draw for pages in a sitting. The life changes so suddenly sometimes that we don't have enough time to stop and marvel and savor and rejoice.

The primary producers make sugars and cells and feed us all through photosynthesis, the miracle chemical conversion, sunlight captured. This butterfly bush has yet to attract the monarch caterpillars that are its symbiotic insect. Orange and yellow are the themes this week.

This Purslane is about to flower. I believe it will be yellow.

This Bromeliad flower is leading the way for a slow fireworks display of color over the next several weeks from our backyard patch.

Fall in Florida brings eternal spring.