SALUTE TO DITCH WEEDS

This Fall has not been very colorful in my area. Although that is not entirely true for we do have color. Brown, rust and pale yellow certainly are colors, just not vibrant ones. Now I am going to make a huge confession here. Please don't be too shocked. I often find Fall colors almost an assault to my senses. I am overwhelmed and sometimes, I study the pavement as I drive to avoid the splendor. I feel like I am living in a cartoon. Yes, I can hear you leaf lovers gasp in disbelief. Is she daft??? I do like them, just in much smaller doses, please.

Perhaps my brightly colored leaf phobia comes from so many years of living in south Florida were seasons go almost unnoticed. Live Oaks keep their leaves all year though in winter, the leaves do get a bit sparse. I use to refer to the trees being in their underwear as apposed to being fully dressed the rest of the year. Winter naked trees like the cypress are rare in most areas. Palm trees don't even think about it and scrub pines love their evergreen nature. Green dominates. Unless you live in the northern part of the state, most Florida trees are evergreen.

There was a small 2 mile strip of roadway where I lived that was studded with occasional maples that got a bit excited color wise once a year. Because the land is so flat, you only can see what is right beside a road. There are no vistas. I use to enjoy the brief splash of color of the random maples.

So when I came here, I was at first thrilled with the changing leaves but that thrill quickly dulled when my senses screamed, "enough all ready." I know I have appalled all you leaf lovers but surely I am not alone. If I have learned anything in life, it is that you can't have an original thought. At least one person out there is saying, "Oh yeah, me too, me too."

Because I live in such a rural, mountainous setting, the trees in fall always get their due. They are photographed constantly. Those very trees however are the ones that overwhelm me. What does not overwhelm me are the ditch weeds.

Those of you who have followed along know I am a fierce appreciator of the underdog and the ditch weeds are definite underdogs. I love the annual displays they manage to attain in spite of living with beer cans, food wrappers, cigarette butts, flooded ditches, droughts and breathing exhaust fumes daily instead of clean air. They are survivors and in spite of such handicaps, they put on a lovely display each year and yet they do not overwhelm with massive displays like the trees do. You must hunt them down. So this is my salute to the ditch weed. Under appreciated by many but not by me.

Enjoy and if you can identify, feel free to educate me. I appreciate their pluck and beauty, but do not really know what I am seeing. Sometimes, that just isn't necessary for appreciation.

As I was walking along the roadside snapping pictures away, suddenly a long dormant awareness came to life. I looked up and all my meter reader warning hairs stood on end. I saw this trio of dogs watching me. They had not made a sound. I was far from my vehicle and for a moment I felt a tinge of fear. The three Shepherd's story was still fresh in my mind.

It was just a reflex for when I really looked, I saw there was no menace. You can see in their faces that I am merely a curiosity, not a threat. Pretty sure I bored them a bit. I did try my "getting low with baby talk approach" but they just stayed out of reach, never barking. A rather strange group. The main road was a good 300 yards from the house. They were just curious and went back down the drive disappointed that I wasn't more interesting as I went back to my vehicle.

Hope you will give the ditch weeds a little closer look now that you have been made aware. They work hard for your approval.