BEFORE AND AFTER

Because of the car wreck earlier this month, I haven’t felt up to tending to my usual fall gardening chores. As October wound down, I brought in all the geraniums, cyclamens, and kalanchoes I planned to save and I had lugged in the twenty-year-old Boston fern that I was sure was reptile-free because I had chased two lizards off the drooping fronds after hosing it down outside. (Next day I discovered two little green anoles had managed to hunker down in the center and are now living contentedly in that ferny, sunny corner of the living room . . . sigh.)

I had pulled up the extra geraniums, shaken off the dirt and hung them upside down in the utility shed, dug up the tuberose bulbs and stored them as well.

Nothing was left to do except to pull up summer’s weedy petunias, zinnias, and marigolds in the planter boxes and switch them out for winter’s pansies.

Then came the wreck and all I wanted to do was take another pain pill and huddle on a recliner.Happily, someone told me about a young woman who would not only sell and deliver flats of pansies, but plant them as well. She came out and cheerfully pulled out the old, then tamped in the new.

I’m feeling more cheerful myself now and am finally ready to get back to the rewrite of my 2011 book. My editor has been wonderfully patient and understanding, but she raised some valid points that I need to tackle, so I’ll be pulling up clumps of weedy verbiage and start switching it out for fresher, more vibrant narration. At least that’s my plan.

In the meantime, my warmest thanks to all of you who have cheered me through this past month with your flowers, cards, Cheetohs, and eMails. I’m convinced I have the best, most caring readers in the world. You really did lift my spirits.