Jump Start on September

It's felt like fall here for some time now - really it's almost felt like winter. I got an early start on my September page last night. I've been beading eggs for another collaborative project, and am working on one that is all teeeny weeeny pastel delicas and I just needed a break from eggs. I looked at the pile of doll forms that I have ready and they didn't speak to me either so I decided to start September.

Reminded of the sunfower that Charles is so tickled to have grown, I made a rough sketch of a sunflower on one side of the heart - the other side will have blackberries - a constant source of annoyance to me, particularly in September when it's time to put the garden to bed - there was no garden this year, my arthritis has pretty much forbidden much gardening as of late - but Charles grew container gardens on the porch, full of wildflowers (and his sunflower yanked from the yard where it was planted by the birds) - even without a garden, there are blackberries to deal with - the Himalyan blackberries are to the Pacific Northwest what kudzu is to the South. I don't want to poison them - the birds nest in the brambles and bunnies live in there too - plus everything trickles down and that weed poison will end up poisoning many things in it's path. They are near to impossible to cut down - the canes are thick and the thorns are huge and very sharp. The only real way to get rid of them is to dig them up and since they are taller than I am, that's a job I'm not ready to take on. In late September, after the birds have eaten the berries, I attack - with rock salt and vinegar - it keeps them at bay (kinda) - they've lifted my fence and grown into my pottery shed - you'd think I'd be more ruthless with them.

And so September will be my love and hate page - There are many things to love and hate about September - September is the month my father died and is the month my wedding anniversary would have been in if I were still married. It is a month of beginnings and endings - of sunflowers and thorns.