What does it all mean? (My Sacred Life, Sunday)

As is perfect for this day, this singular day when I can shoot our garden arbor before we depart for weeks, knowing it will be long-faded by the time we return, here is a photo taken at dawn this morning of one of our favorite views and most-precious garden elements.
(the photo is a bit odd-looking with the rounded edges at the top corners only because it is two photos, left side and right side, stitched together)

It has taken years--roughly six or seven--for the various vegetation we have introduced on the two sides of the arbor to take flight. It was Julia's brilliant notion to add a Clematus of the variety, OuttaMyWayI'mClimbingUpitus (a recent addition to the nomenclature which you may not yet see listed in your horticulture books) which finally has given us almost complete, end-to-end all-the-way-over-the-top coverage of the arbor.

I'm happy to report that I can find no photos at the moment which show what this area looked like years ago. I know some of you are sensitive and easily brought to tears, so I'm glad to spare you.

While we will have an absolutely marvelous time on our trip, I know that both Julia and I will miss the special time when our garden begins to fade, even as the fall-blooming plants rush to the fore and have their moment in the spotlight. With a little luck, we will get home before the first hard freeze and enjoy a few more home-grown tomatoes. Lots of the herbs, meanwhile, don't seem to give a doggone about freezing or snow, so some of those will make appearances in soups and such all the way to Christmas.

So, what does it all mean? My friends, it is all about now, all about where you are. I'm here on East Mexico Avenue in Denver preparing for our yearly pilgrimage to Michigan, and I'm reporting what I am living.

You? You may be about to leave for Algonquin Park or Seattle or some crazy hill-infested 10K in the Atlanta area, or even be busily nailing plywood over your windows in the Florida keys as you anticipate Ike. It's all the same thing, people. It is all being where you are, doing what you are doing, and loving every second of it because it is exactly where you are supposed to be right this moment.

Love to you all as I embark on two more days of getting ready both to travel and to be away from work--I easily confess to being one who frets too much when gone too long from the office--and please stop by now and again...I promise there will be words from the wilderness ("do they have electricity there, Julia??").