The season has changed though the calendar won’t admit it, yet… I feel it in my bones, this chill, the foraging for sweaters and longer skirts, and wooly socks…
I hear it in the geese calling overhead, the crickets’ fiddling, the quiet of outdoors abandoned and children gone back to school.…
The rich earthy smell of leaves’ decay, of sweet peas’ final hurrah, of damp cool earth, all tell me that it’s come—Fall is upon us.
The plums are gathered, tart yet sweet, to save them from marauding bears by night. Apples too, for pie and crisp and sauce and all things cinnamon. Last blackberries simmer into jelly.
The pole beans too are mostly picked and frozen. It is as though the sun lingers just long enough for the harvest to be gathered, the potatoes dug, before fall settles in completely.
Summer’s feast of ‘zucchini wonder’—garden basil, oregano and thyme, fresh tomatoes, sauteed garlic and onions, and of course, zucchini fried till tender, topped with cheese–declares that summer, fully matured, is passing on into the fall.
It comes with brilliant blue of sky and golden yellow nodding heads
–the warmth of sun staying for just a bit to usher in the cooler nights, to soften the grief of summer’s leisure gone, to ease us into routine– with bright countenance and cheery backdrop.
And then sun too will leave. The rains will return. The bright world will pass into a silver sleep. But for today, we cannot help but welcome fall’s arrival, rich with fruit of summer and sweet reminisce…
–LS
“Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.” Eccl.11:7
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