Flowers in season

I've been taking photos of the flowers down at Mama and Daddy's house all summer.  Without even really realizing it, it became important to me to pay attention to them - to document them.  A thread of connection to Mama.  So I have a lot of photos of these flowers in my photos library.  I am glad of that. 

I took these photos on August 10.  They were lush and lovely and so vibrant.  They drew me in.  

I am so glad I took photos on this day...

Looking back, I think this was near the peak of their beauty this season.  So thankful I was slow enough to see them...

August 30

The next time I thought to snap a photo as I walked out of Daddy's house I was almost caught by surprise.  Everything looked a bit bedraggled... hadn't they just been lush and full of life?  Yes, they had. But that was peak and this was slightly past peak.  I stood and looked at these flowers on this particular day and took them all in.  They signal the end of a season... and to me, this summer, there is a lot of feeling in that statement.  You really never know when you are in the peak season until it is slightly past peak. 

Sept. 4

Then just a few days later, we had had a rain.  The world was washed off and fresh again.  Not lush, but alive.  I found there were new things to draw my attention...

Like a thistle out of a stump - a little forlorn, but pretty.

And this big, gnarly bush that upon closer inspection...

has this lovely bloom.

And then back at Mama's house - and those pots of flowers she planted on her first day of 'summer' - the day before she got sick... 3 days before she died.  They are still lovely.  They may be past their peak of summer foliage...

but I see a deepening, a richness to their colors.  Even something unexpected like that purple bloom.  

And then there are signs of new color and life - of a new season looming...  so I take a photo of that, too.    

I think to myself... it's going to be okay. We can do this hard thing. But I'm so very, very thankful for having taken in the lush beauty of this past summer.  I am so grateful for the times that I have really lived into a moment, or a season, or a time... and the good memories of those wonderful seasons that I carry with me - always.