09.10.2025 | Ordinary Wednesday

We headed out to the Garden under partly cloudy skies this mid-week morning in south Saint Louis.  It's going to be warmer than yesterday with highs in the upper 80s with light and variable winds.  We have a morning routine of watering, watering, watering these past few weeks with no sign of relief in the long-term forecast.  On top of it, the heat is going to return, albeit not the massive heat waves we have experienced earlier in the summer.  The next seven days calls for high temperatures in the mid to upper 90s.  Buckle up, Fall has not really arrived just yet!

A harbinger of the soon-to-be Autumn are the return of the Monarch Butterflies to the Garden.  What a sight to behold.  The flying works of art with their orange and black fluttering about reminding us that the seasons are changing.  They don't stick around for very long but they are glorious while they are here.  It has been a grace-filled few days in the Garden with the Monarchs, the Swallowtails and the hummingbirds all feeding and flitting about.  I've been praying to be filled with more gratitude and there is nothing that I am more thankful for than these beautiful creatures in my Garden.

There is a wonderful quote by Melodie Beattie that says, "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend."  Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more!  Enough... and more!  Amen to that!

The watering continues. The Garden is looking good right now.  The Fall lettuce and spinach and squash are doing their thing.  The peppers are producing like gangbusters.  It's a good day in the Garden.  It's a good day to be grateful.  Thankful for the bounty of Creation.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.