I left 11 fruit trees, an herb garden, a vegetable garden and a 6-foot tall climbing rose bush when we moved to North Dakota.  I believed the climate here would be too cold to grow anything, and that the summers would be too short. 

I was wrong.  Even though I have more weeds than garden, we still grow more produce than I know what to do with.  October is only a week or so away, and there are still things to pick, jam to make, vegetables to freeze.

Today during an afternoon tour of my backyard (I wanted to admire the changing leaves, dark currants and the bright cranberries), I found a big, shiny strawberry.  Not two feet away was a small white strawberry blossom.

I shouldn’t have been surprised.  North Dakota is as close to a magic place as I have ever seen.  Anything can happen here.