Catching up with the season

An armadillo, seen once at dawn, seems to have taken up residence in the pleasure grounds, accounting for all our window boxes full of various kinds of lettuce and also rooting up an edge of the lawn in Mack's yard. We have harvested green and yellow wax beans from container-grown plants three times now. The white cypress vine is going to seed. There are monarch-butterfly eggs on all the milkweed plants, which are in bloom right now. Four o'clocks have collapsed for the season, not to be seen until they sprout anew. The mystery J&P experimental variegated Peace-type rose is in bloom in the front yard. Each time it produces a flower, someone takes it, but this one has now lasted three days. Bright Lights cosmos are still showy but are also producing many, many seeds, which seem to grow true, so they're being scattered all over the place. There are already bud stalks on once-forced paperwhite narcissus plants in the side yard. The scent of loquat flowers is pervasive, and they are covered with honeybees and with butterflies of several kinds, including admirals. Countless fancy anemone leaves are everywhere. Pecan leaves are halfway fallen. Leaves of the ornamental pear tree are just beginning to color. Leaves of Dutch iris are appearing everywhere. The mosquito nuisance has abated with the cooler weather.