second spring

In this climate, when the rains come in the fall, the plants reprise spring in miniature. Oxalis teems over our gravel driveway (and chicken's meat about everywhere else), and the purple-streaky Viola that's hung on there through the summer blooms again. A mallow in the alley behind the lot where the Twin Tepees were is blooming; that's what I noticed today. My forsythia has been sending out flowers, in single spies, hoping fondly that this time winter has forgotten to come.