random thoughts – Day 1,320 – (Saturday) – yellow sprawl

The fall weather sure is summery the past few days, and the clothes packed for Vegas that came back clean have been perfect for the weather since the return. The rest of the vacation packing was finally laundered, with the step counter becoming a laundry casualty, illustrating the danger of not checking the pockets, which I am usually diligent about. Luckily, the work wellness plan’s annual fall steps challenge ended on Monday and I won’t need to track steps again until the spring. Or maybe I’ll win the quarterly wellness raffle for the Fit Bit and won’t need to worry about a pedometer at all.

Sprawling mum.

The mums began to bloom while I was away, and now there are perky yellow flowers on leggy stems sprawled in the front flower bed. I don’t remember having so many yellow plants and would have sworn one plant was light purple and another was white, but now the returning plants are yellow. The once red-orange coneflower bloomed yellow this year and it’s feeling like the yard is telling me what it wants and that happens to be yellow. Is it too late to buy the yard some more pretty plants? Maybe in some non-yellow colors?

According to the weather forecast, the recent 80s are returning to a more normal temperature level and will be in the high 40s and low 50s beginning Sunday and through the week. Sweater, sweater dress, and bootie season can resume and maybe the short sleeves can be packed away until real spring-summer.

The leaves are finally beginning to turn colors in the neighborhood, several weeks later than usual. It’s possible that the leaves falling into the yard from the neighbor’s tree will coincide with the final mow of the year and both can be done in one effort. Such are the whimsical, autumnal daydreams of a solo homeowner with an eye towards efficiency.