Autumn Colors

"But see the fading many-colored woods

Shade deepening over shade. . ."

~ Henry David Thoreau, quoting Thomson, 1862

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Due to a rainy spring and a very dry summer and autumn, our leaves are turning later this year than other years and are more brown and gold than crimson and orange. This is no bad thing; the woods are lovely, especially in the golden hour between evening and sunset, when golden light floods through golden trees, making all seem gold.

It has been a slow autumn, dipping gently from Indian Summer towards blustery November, and the snows and cold winds of winter. We are on a graceful downward path as the year cycles to its close and it is a journey to be enjoyed and relished, ravenously. 

Mornings cool enough for mist, low hanging on the trees that fringe the hills, and wood smoke curling up quietly from homes with windows and doors shut against the chill. But days warm enough for short sleeves, almost making  one believe that really, October is not as far gone as it is. And evenings that come on slowly, and red sunsets, and early nights for looking at stars shifting into their winter positions. 

In the woods the children look for deer track and places where one has bedded down, indicated by flattened grass, often cozily burrowed out from tall stalks. When they find one, they lay down, too, and tell me oh! How comfortable it is!

Sometimes we pluck a bit of fragrant cedar to bring home, or find gifts of feathers on the ground. We all bring home memories of gold.

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"From deep secluded recesses,

From the fragrant cedars and the ghostly pines so still,

Came the carol of the bird."

~ Walt Whitman

A Look Back at Summer

"The day is done and the darkness

Falls from the wings of Night

As a feather is wafted downward

Like an eagle in his flight.  . ."

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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As the days of October steadily rise and fall and my little first-born son somehow celebrated his 13th birthday a few days ago, I look back on this year and realize how fast it went. This blog, begun with the best of intentions for regular posts, sat unwritten in for most of the summer. It was a busy time of year, May til October, and I had to use the time I had available to me in different ways. I do not regret it at all, but thought I would like to devote at least one entry to looking back at the summer and some of the things my children did, as they accomplished, grew, had fun and simply enjoyed their childhood. 

The beginning of summer is known to us as "Baseball Season" and this year was no exception. This year Judah and Malachi played for teams in a neighboring town and almost every day of the week I was at the fields, either for a game or for practices. As the littlest three made friends and brought backpacks of snacks and toys to share among them I sat in the bleachers and watched my boys play baseball. 

I love this time of year so much. I love the hot afternoons fading into cool evenings; I love the boys climbing into the van after a game, sweaty and covered with dirt; I love talking over the whole game with them on our way to the nearest fast-food place still open, to get a cheeseburger and head home through the dark country under a night sky filled with stars. I loved hating the umpires with them, reliving the moments of brilliant plays, and discussing how different tactics could have turned the tide of a lost game. In the back seat, the littles would be asleep already, dirty stuffies clutched in dirty hands, worn out from another long night of play and excitement. 

Baseball season wound down in July and the boys had their last game mid-month, right before  heading off to Illinois to visit their grandparents. In July we spent many hot, intensely sunny days at the lake, joining a bunch of other parents and kids at the beach. While the big boys swam out as far as the boundaries, the little ones stayed closer to the shore, wading and building sand castles and finding feathers, rocks and sticks and bringing them to me to keep safe. I think my purse still has sand in it from those summer adventures! 

Little Anne turned 7 and we went to the zoo to celebrate her birthday. It was a cool day after many weeks of extreme heat and we had a fun time seeing the exhibits and the beautiful flowers. 

In August school began again and little Benjamin joined Anne and Malachi at the elementary school and Judah and David began 6th grade (middle school!) After a rocky first day, Benjamin quickly adjusted well to his new routine and it is such a joyful thing for me to hear him tell me all about his day when he gets off the bus. I recently picked him up from school and as his class walked down the hall, passing us, the chorus of little voices saying "Bye, Ben!" and flutter of little hands waving gladdened my heart. Benjamin turned to me with his big dimpled smile and said "Mommy, those are my friends!"

September was a golden and green month, transitioning into the gold and blue of October. We spent much of it outdoors, as the weather has been very dry and there isn't any rain to keep us inside. The boys showed their 4-H projects at the county fair and we all spent a long day riding all the rides and seeing all there was to see. At the time, Rose and I were recovering from a long, inexplicable illness but we thankfully were well enough to enjoy the fair!

Judah turned 12 in September and we went to see the Cincinnati Reds play at the stadium in the big city. It was my first time going to a major league baseball game and I wasn't sure what to expect. I surprised myself by loving it, although, of course, it wasn't quite as exciting as seeing my own boys play earlier in the year! 

Rose and I have spent many days outside walking trails or exploring the creek. There is always something new to see. This year she has found quite a collection of acorns and we have made many acorn babies - big acorn babies with acorns for heads, and with wire bodies and cloth dresses, and tiny newborn acorn babies made from the smallest-of-all acorns, swaddled in a bit of white cotton and wrapped in string.  

And now, it is October and my thoughts tend towards Thanksgiving, and the kids thoughts tend towards Halloween. We trick or treated at a local campground last weekend, where everything was decorated most spookily for the occasion and each child finished the night with far too much candy. 

So the year turns.

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". . .oh blessed are we

The leaves of the Oaken King

Fade away, fade away

From the seeds that will come in Spring

Oh blessed are we." 

~ Damh the Bard

Almost Autumn

"When I am to die

Receive me, I'll cry

For Jesus hath loved me, I cannot tell why

But this I do find

We two are so joined

He'll not live in glory and leave me behind."

~ William Walker

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Where did the summer go? 

Perhaps it was only a few days long, after all. I can't remember. I just know that now the signs of autumn are appearing. The leaves have begun their incredible color transformation and show us again how beautiful an ending can be. 

Going to sleep is not a sadness. In the Spring new life will come again. There is reason to celebrate all parts of the circle.

School has started again and this morning the air was almost chilly as little Rosie and I walked home from the bus stop. She was snuggled deep into her cape and her bright blue eyes smiled out at me from her hood and the bright hair that the wind whipped around her face. She looked up, as she always does, to see if the mourning doves were sitting on the power lines as they always do. 

"Coo, COOOOO, cooo coo." She called. They answered, as they always do. She smiled, and we went into the house for breakfast.

We went out to the creek recently and it was brown and high. A few recent days of rain have muddied the waters that rush over the rocks. No slow tranquil drip of summer; no green lush banks. It is turning towards autumn. The ground was scattered with leaves. The trees buzzed with cicadas, and Rosie looked up trying to find which tree was loudest. 

Pawpaws will be ripe in another month or so. 

The berries are gone. The wildflowers are imperfect, still beautiful in their decline. The woods have a spicy scent; less earthy than earlier this year. The gound released its beautiful bounty and now is retiring, ready for sleep. 

It is a good time of year. Welcome, welcome, this transitioning. 

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"Meek leaves drop yearly from the forest-trees,

To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass

In their old glory. O thou God of old!

Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these; -

But so much patience, as a blade of grass

Grows by contented through the heat and cold."

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A Trip to the Nursery

"It takes so little to make a child happy, it is a pity grown people do not oftener remember it and scatter little bits of pleasure before the small people." 

~ Louisa May Alcott, Under the Lilacs

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At the end of May, after school was properly out and the kids had flown through the first week of freedom on high hopes, high energy and high amounts of food (oh my goodness, three not-quite-teenage boys eat SO MUCH SO OFTEN!), things quieted down a little and the kids settled into their regular summer routines. After running some errands one afternoon we headed out to our local nursery to look for flowers to plant in the front of the house. 

Annuals generally can go in a little earlier, but its been a very rainy spring. Anne had given me a sweet little potted impatiens for Mother's Day, proudly brought home from school and carefully watered until it was dry enough to put it into the ground. She was adamant that we needed to buy some flowers that would match the soft pink hue of the flower. 

I love our local nursery. It's locally owned and the quality of the plants is incredible. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly and everything I've ever purchased from them flourishes! This is one place where it is easy to spend a lot of money!

We looked at all the greenhouses; the annuals, the perennials, the vegetables, herbs and hanging baskets. We sweated in the heat and everyone had their own opinion about what flowers we should buy!

In the end, we got begonias. I love these flowers because they are so easy to grow and do well in part shade, too, which I have in my front yard. I let Benjamin pick what color and he chose the multi color flats, with white, dark pink and light pink. Anne thought they would work perfectly with her pink impatiens. 

At home, Judah turned over last years bed and raked it smooth. I dug the holes and everyone helped nestle the little plants in the ground, patting the soil over them. We had enough for both front beds and two pots, a hanging basket, and an extra pot for Grandma's house, to set by her front door. We  planted just in time - it rained that very evening!

Since then, the begonias have doubled their size and seeing their happy spread of color makes me glad whenever I see it. Anne's impatiens are doing well, too! Perhaps they encourage me, too, to grow determinedly and to do the very best I can, where I am. 

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"The begonia is an amazing plant...it just keeps going along and blooming, and when cut back, it starts up again." 

~ Gladys Taber