The leaves on the snowball bush are turning red, as are the tips of the leaves on the dogwoods. That’s the first message sent saying “Get ready. Fall’s coming.”

Even before this nature alert, there was something in the air. Just before the onset of autumn, we notice a discernable difference when the front door is opened and we breathe in the morning. It’s in the breeze. The sky seems a slightly different shade of blue.

The butterflies hovering around the lantana are beautiful, but some of their wings are a little tattered on the tips. In the late evening yesterday, there were 25 zebra swallowtails counted on one lantana alone.

They know something is coming. There is going to be a change, a

Emerson’s 11th birthday is right around the corner, so I spent this holiday weekend laboring lovingly over her birthday scrapbook while she and Ella were visiting with Brian. As I sentimentally organized piles of pictures from the last year, I couldn’t help but marvel at how much my “baby” has grown.

The tallest girl among her peers, we are no longer able to shop in the kids’ department, which presents challenges, as I don’t want my 11-year-old looking like an 18-year-old. Em is in the fifth grade and her last year at Forest Acres Elementary; then she will enter the unchartered territory of Gettys Middle School.

I like to have ambient noise in the background while I work on projects. Lifetime provided both noise and an educational experience Sunday afternoon as I scrapbooked memories of the last year. In Sunday’s Lifetime lineup was a movie called “The Choking Game.” While I didn’t focus my attention on the movie, I heard and saw enough to wonder if this is another thing I need to add to my mental checklist of things to worry

Education money

Dear Editor,

Money for education has evolved into a strange beast.

Back in the 1960s, I was able to save enough from my summer work cutting grass and in the textile mill to pay for college tuition. It also included paying for the commuting gasoline, clothes and books … and whatever teenagers spent for amusements.

That was also when minimum wage was $1.25 to $1.40 per hour and tuition and student fees were $650 per year … $2,600 for a four-year degree. The equivalent in 2014 dollars would be $8.13-$9.10 for minium wage, $4,225 per year and $16,900 for a degree.

Some textbooks now, the real kind with ink on the pages, cost half of what I paid for a semester’s tuition. But all of