I’ve been joking with son #2 all week.  “Do you know what Wednesday is?”  He was completely perplexed, not able to think of any significant holiday, family birthday or anniversary, or upcoming event. 

“Wednesday is MUM DAY!”  

Of course, he was still confused:  there is no such thing as “mum day”.  No, it’s just the day that our garden club’s order of mums arrives.  I’ve ordered a lot of them this year, and I’m very excited to see them finally in place. 

I don’t usually order too many for my own house.  I am often gone for two or almost three weeks the end of September and early October, to an international dairy trade show called World Dairy Expo.  Why buy a flower that has a bloom life of about a month—only to miss about half of it?  (To be fair, I usually find some later blooming ones, and buy a few to enjoy after I get back.)

But this year, the trade show is cancelled.  I have no plans to travel out of New England, and I will be here, in my house and home office, almost the entire season.

So when that mum order came around in late August this year, I gave it a lot more attention.  I placed my order carefully, even mapping out where each flower should go. 

It’s my silver lining for this year: embracing fall fully—with mums!