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Thoughts for an Autumn Day

15.10.08 | Ilona Erwin | 3 Comments

..and a few pictures from my garden….


Isn’t it just the most exhilarating thing to be alive in this golden autumn, while flower borders are still rich and full of bloom as they can be, and be able to bridge the thought of a flowerless winter by planning and scheming and dreaming of the spring bulbs and the tulips that are to come? ~Antoinette Perrett, House Beautiful 1922

Gardening is a long road, with many detours and way stations, and here we all are at one point or another. It’s not a question of superior or inferior taste, merely a question of which detour we are on at the moment. Getting there (as they say) is not important; the wandering about in the wilderness or in the olive groves or in the bayous is the whole point.-Henry Mitchell

“At the end of the swamp, a narrow road turns right to the house. The giant sugar maples that surround it are spreading a deep green canopy above the slant roof and I look up at them and tell them that the first swamp maple is turning. Whether they believe me or not, I do not know. They are inscrutable. They are also very independent. sometimes the biggest one at the corner of the yard will be summer green while the one back where the barn burned is flaming with glory. Why?

Weather conditions are the same for all of them, one is no more sheltered than another, and they are the same age, judging by their size. I like to think one tree decides to keep summer a bit longer and one impetuously responds to the tide of incoming autumn. Trees are not remotely like people, but I reflect that I know some people who have never let summer go and others who begin to think winter thoughts in July. Perhaps it is all temperament.”
-Gladys Tabor

“I go to nature to be soothed and healed,
and to have my senses put in order.”
~ John Burroughs

When autumn wind goes running
It does some magic things.
It gives the shadows dancing shoes
It gives the bright leaves wings
When autumn wind goes running

It curls the bonfire’s tail of smoke
And shares a little whispered joke
With cornstalks who delight to prattle
It turns a seed pod into a rattle
When autumn wind goes running

~~~~~~~~ Autumn- a Season of Traditions ~~~~~~~

To Autumn

by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,–
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

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Tomatoes- Final Verdict 2008
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About Ilona Erwin

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Thank you, in advance for your support! Privacy Policy

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Machelle says

    October 16, 2008 at 5:55 pm

    Beautiful, beautiful thoughts. I love Autumn, It happens to be my favorite season. I love the smell of new fallen leaves and the sound of them rustling underneath my feet.Another silly thing I enjoy is driving along a leaf strewn road and watching in my rear view mirror as they scatter and dance about.Oh well I didn’t mean to ramble on, I just got caught up in the moment. I love visiting your blog, there is always something new to see and learn.

  2. Kerri says

    October 17, 2008 at 2:06 am

    Hi Ilona, for some reason I couldn’t make the comment link work, but when I clicked ‘links to the post’ it brought me here. Do you have comments turned on?
    Thanks for visiting and saying hello ๐Ÿ™‚
    I enjoyed your autumn prose. It’s such a beautiful time of year. I only wish it lasted longer before the cold sets in and takes away the colors.
    I was interested in your heirloom tomato experience. I grow ‘Jet Star’ and really like them for their dependability, nice round fruit and delicious flavor. They’re also easy to can. I’ve enjoyed Early Boy too, in previous years.

  3. Ilona says

    October 17, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    Sorry about the comments,kerri- I haven’t seen if Blogger improved it, but when I didn’t want to lose Haloscan (which I had since the beginning of the blog in ’04)I couldn’t make both work. Still, as you see, the blogger comments work if you find your way… not the best solution, but there you are! I appreciate it so much that you patiently commented ๐Ÿ™‚ I thought your blog was wonderful. ‘Jet Star’ is one I will need to try next year, then -thanks for the tip.
    {{machelle}} thank you for you encouragement- I’m grateful and am so glad you enjoyed some of my favorite quotes about gardening and autumn. The great thing about a gardening hobby is that you always have some new adventure of interest to follow- happy to be in it with garden companions such as you.

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Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

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