Friday, September 3, 2010

Season's end

Well, summer is almost over--actually, it is over when you see big yellow school buses picking up children at the street corner and begin to see the piles of tomatoes dwindling at the farm stands. Oh, the HORROR of dwindling tomatoes.! To me, tomatoes are the only redeeming thing about summer--no, that is not true. It's humid steamy days and constant mosquito bites are redeemed by fresh corn, green beans, bright peppers, and fresh produce of every kind. Of course, I left out hummingbirds, sweet iced tea, never ending jumps off the dock into the lake, crickets at night, giant blossoms on my moon vine opening at dusk, cold suppers, watching the last of daylight every evening from my bed, and many other lovely aspects of the season.
I guess my love affair with fall is making me wish the last vestiges of summer to be on their way. I have been admiring my perfectly seasoned wood pile since April, anticipating that first day that will be cold enough for a fire.
I know I shouldn't wish away a single day. I just don't "do hot" very well, never have, and never will. I look each day much like my end of the season plants--a little droopy and sick of the heat.
I am in Mass. with our daughter Clare for a couple of weeks, and I am certainly seeing those hints of Fall that make me want to shout. We drove through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and the rolling hills of the Amish countryside in Pennsylvania thrilling at the beauty and timeless hope seen in the harvested fields. So many deep truths are tied into harvest, such a poignant time for so many people who have labored so long for this season.

Robert Lewis Stevenson said, "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant." Whether summer, fall, winter or spring, that is a wonderful way to live.
ever grateful for that




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little blanket of snow

little blanket of snow