The United Colors of Topsmead

This summer, July claimed more than its fair share of hot days, and August is starting out with cool, almost sweater-weather mornings.  As the last month of summer and especially with its cooler mornings, August deserves to be mindfully savored.  So in savoring frames of mind, my poodle and I headed over to the west veranda at Topsmead.  Drinking hot coffee in my insulated mug, I sat on one of the Adirondack chairs and watched the morning develop.

One of the Topsmead DEEP summer employees appeared from around the corner with a bucket and garden tools.  Because I know that he is a teacher, I shared that when I was teaching, I always felt that summer was happily uphill until my July 30 birthday.  After that day, summer seemed to crash headlong, ever accelerating, down to the opening of school at the end of August.  I asked if he was thinking about the start of school yet.  "Well, not yet," he said.  "Still enoying being at Topsmead." And on he went deadheading flowers to keep the gardens fresh.

Finishing my coffee, I got up and walked around the house from the walled English garden to the cutting garden to the kitchen back door plantings to savor the brightly blooming flowers: some annuals, some perennials, some planted in hanging baskets, some planted in pots.  I extended my walk out to the Butterfly Garden to top off my flower morning.  The gardens seemed so inclusive:   Such mixed color palettes: pinks, whites, yellows, purples, oranges, lime green and burnt umber variegated coleus leaves.  So many different blooming shapes: tall spikes, rounded mounds, curling leaves, floppy petals, trailing ivy.  DEEP and the Friends of Topsmead garden volunteers are certainly outdoing themselves this year along with a hand from Mother Nature.    

As I headed back to the parking lot, a phrase from an old ad campaign from an Italian casualwear company popped into my head.  With a slight tweak, it seemed to apply perfectly to my flower walkabout morning--the United Flowers of Topsmead.

Margaret Hunt
BlogMistress