I returned to walking again this morning after a three-day hiatus.  As I headed through the neighborhoods, and then down Emmons Boulevard, I could not believe just how green the lawns have become after the periodic rainfall and those gulley washers we’ve had over the course of the last week.  In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d think it was Spring.  The grass has become lush again instead of hard and crunchy and it looked like Mother Nature took her green crayon out of the Crayola box and went to town.  Sadly, there is no resurrecting the flowers in the many porch pots and hanging baskets that simply curled up and died weeks ago.

I was at Meijer earlier this week, and saw a sure sign of Fall … no, not the back-to-school supplies that magically appear every year just as soon as the Fourth of July items are tucked away. I mean the colorful garden mums that were lined up like soldiers outside the main entrance, the handy and beautiful replacements for your withered-up flowers and plants.  It’s way too early for Meijer employees to artfully arrange those chrysanthemums and a few colorful gourds onto stacked hay bales, for that would be truly rushing the season.

As I crossed the footbridge, I noticed that even the Ecorse Creek was no longer covered in green scum, but has returned to its original murky-brown color, yet the Creek is still devoid of any ducks or geese. I walked down to the tracks and back and saw no one my entire four-mile trip.  Perhaps a lot of people are travelling, or at their cottages enjoying a last gasp of Summer, knowing that time is ticking before they must get into the grind again, especially if they have kids. Soon the long, yellow school buses will be rolling down the street and those lazy, crazy, hazy days of Summer will be in the rear-view mirror.