summer {and zinnias} don’t leave

My flowers are beginning to fade. I am not ready for summer to end. Not ready for falling leaves. Not ready for boots and layers and plaid. Not ready for the way our laundry triples when my boys are no longer running around barefoot and shirtless and the girls aren’t in swimsuits. Not ready.

Each year I try a garden. I’ve learned I am awesome at growing four things: basil, cilantro, zinnias and sunflowers. Basically, I can grow the things that thrive when you forget about them.

Dirty bare feet dangling from my grandpa’s garden chair.We are trying to be more consistent with our nature journals this year. I feel like we start strong each year and then it gets cold and I get depressed because everything is brown. I’m going to fight that this year! For those that asked recently, we use Strathmore Visual Journals, size 5.5×8. They come in bigger sizes, but I feel like the kids fill the pages better with the small size and they are more portable. The paper is thick for mixed media, so we can change up what medium we are using…paint, ink, colored pencils.He was drawing our dog chasing the chickens. Arley (the dog) loves to chase the chickens, but doesn’t do more than chase them. The chickens chase our cat. The cat chases mice. I run from mice. It is a circus around here.The next day she wanted to create a larger drawing of her dancing with a flower…the flower was the same size as her. She was holding the leaves like hands…with a big rainbow background. It was completely worth all the flowers she picked for inspiration.We are going to begin harvesting zinnia and sunflower seeds soon. Part of the process. Seasons change. In rough seasons, I can’t wait for the change. When the season is sweet, it is so hard to let it go. Winter always makes me appreciate and relish summer a bit more. I guess I’ll take the coming winter, knowing summer will return.