The door is closing on this growing season. To make up for the sense of loss, somehow the season has incredible sweetness. Frost has that effect on things. On fruits, on the the ground, on our souls.
It is as if to placate our mournful sense that the pleasant days of fall will give way to winter’s austere lessons of rest, endings, and survival.
Sweet Labors
I have had a few simply perfect days of warm weather, crisp mornings which end in mellow afternoons. The days are shorter, but filled with end of season work. The kind of work that is a pleasure to accomplish. Gathering in the last of tomatoes, picking gourds for indoor decor, clearing out the old garden to make way (and planning already!) for the new.
I have readied the outdoor furniture’s cushions for storage, but the nights are just right, still, for gatherings around the fire. I have to put away the lounging invitations of our back porch, but not yet ready to relegate all seating to the indoor fortress of a cold climate. That will come soon enough.
There is something so sweet about the smells of the dying and fallen leaves. If you pay attention, the individual trees and plants have their own distinctive fragrance to them. Maple is most acrid and strawberry is aromatic, not with strawberry smell, but in a likeness.
Walks and short hikes have been in order. Enveloped in the woodsy aroma of thickets, trees and streams dotted with floating leaves, filling my memories with the gaudy color framed in browns and stubborn greens.
Pleasant And Tasty
It is apple time, and the farmer’s market is bursting with varieties of all kinds. Pumpkin pies are on my menu, and the aromas of burning leaves and hickory logs in the chill nights all infuse life with sweet smells and a cozy sentimentality. It warms my inner thoughts as well as my jacket clad body.
This time of year increases our craving for comfort foods, many made from the increase from our gardens. Along with apple everything, good cabbage dishes and tender squash, chicken pot pies and hearty soups suddenly sound irresistible.
Weather And the Garden
We have had a few frosts. None have been the hard killing kind, so there are still some flowers in my wildflower patch. Soon though, this soft kindly end of my garden will be over and the realities of winter in the North will arrive. I know that. I just want to dream and revel in this aromatic and sunshine warmed time a little longer.
It has been a very lovely year in Ohio. I wish I could say the same for other parts of the country, places with persistent drought or with record rain and flooding.
My heart always goes out to those who struggle surviving the elements. We are all vulnerable and subject to these whims of nature.
All the more reason to count our blessings and fully appreciate the good that is given us, today.
I am grateful for the good harvest, the comfortable weather, and the generally congenial conditions of this past season.
It is to be savored in our memories, as not all years are so gentle and generous.
