Color Corner

Early December is a period of time here on the prairie where all of the colors seem to fade. Everything is pulling back to one shade of brown or the other, having briefly flourished in an array of oranges and yellows before it’s demise. And while we’ve had some snow, it isn’t yet reliably staying to cover the brown with the brilliant white carpet that we’ll enjoy in coming months.

When we hit this time of year, sometimes it’s nice to look back and remember what was offered up only a couple of months back. For me, today, that’s late August and the stand of false sunflowers and goldenrod we have at one corner of the property:

This riot of giant flowers is not something we planted, and I don’t believe they were placed here by my grandparents either. Rather, they’ve grown up here on their own, and we’ve elected to let they stay and, to some degree, expand.

While it’s a large batch of flowers, it doesn’t take up an unreasonable amount of space, and it isn’t the case that we need that space for any other particular purpose. And they do host other bits of wildlife - birds, butterflies, and other insects as well.

So there you have it - just something to brighten up a gray December day.