Here's my favorite. My mother loved this poem and I read it after her funeral. It also left an impression on my children when recited at a guinea pig funeral after we listened to Samuel Barber's 'Adagio". Not a dry eye in the house. THE MELANCHOLY days have come, the saddest of the year, Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere; Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead; They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread; The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay, 5 And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day. Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood? Alas! they all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers Are lying in their lowly beds with the fair and good of ours. 10 The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again. The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow; But on the hill the goldenrod, and the aster in the wood, 15 And the yellow sunflower by the brook in autumn beauty stood, Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men, And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen. And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come, To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home; 20 When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still, And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill, The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore, And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more. And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died, 25 The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side. In the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forests cast the leaf, And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief: Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young friend of ours, So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers. William Cullen Bryant, 1832

Have fun!

ogrose, I am retired. :) but I look after my grand kids until they're old enough to fend for themselves at preschool, and fill in sometimes when parent's schedules don't cooperate. As soon as the last one is about 2-3yo I'll have my time to myself again. About your brug, Carrie could better answer but I don't think you should plant it this late. But if you do, you'll have to cut it back in a month (just ahead of the first freeze) and root the cutting just in case the one you planted doesn't make it. I think all the brugs got 'something' this year. It was so hot and dry.

Sure hope you feel better and I know those martins will arrive soon. Since I moved, I don't see as many birds as I use to, and do miss getting out into the yard in Lansford checking on where the robins will build. Son in law said he would put up a martin house for me but never got around to it. I am in Minot now in apts. Had to downsize due to leg problems in climbing stairs. Take care and keep us informed with notes and pictures Marie from ND