At Home and Abroad

We’re almost at the end of September now, the last week of what seemed like a very short month. We passed the Autumn Equinox at 2:50 a.m. on Saturday morning. We’re now in the days when the dark hours outnumber the light ones. We will lose about two minutes of daylight every day from now until the Winter Solstice. With the diminishing light comes a great change in the world. The botanical world responds to the lessening light by either going dormant or dying. The deciduous trees lose their green chlorophyll and reveal their hidden colors in a final burst of glory as they go to sleep. The perennial plants begin to withdraw into their roots to rest. The annual plants give one last burst of bloom and then set and drop their seeds and die. Only the evergreens retain their color as the world grows dark.

A sunset last week.

My garden is in the middle of this process. Some stalwart annuals are hanging on, they will try to keep on blooming until a hard frost takes them. There are some lovely late bloomers, white anemones and pink colchicums, that are flowering for their first and only time. The colchicums seem to erupt from the earth. It’s almost startling. The colors as the season shifts seem more intense, a floral last hurrah before they’re gone and the world dulls to shades of brown and gray and eventually white. I love the goldenrod and asters blooming in the wild places and the marigolds and helenium, nasturtiums and amaranths that brighten the closing of the season in my garden.

My anemones.

The colchicum.

One of the flowers in full bloom now is the beautiful bane of my garden – sunchokes, also called Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus). They are a plague that I brought upon myself. Years ago while perusing my seed catalogs, I read about them – a member of the sunflower family, they have edible roots that are nutritious, bright yellow flowers that smell of vanilla and chocolate. They sounded wonderful. I ordered some and planted them. That fall I dug them up and brought them in to eat. They tasted like dirt. We didn’t like them. I tossed them onto the compost pile – one of the biggest gardening mistakes I’ve ever made. The next year that compost was spread throughout my garden and every place it went, sunchokes sprang up. And they spread aggressively by root and seed. Now I have large patches of them –one by my old asparagus patch that is constantly attempting a full invasion, another one in the orchard. They have infiltrated the woodland garden and the lilac hedge. I spend a lot of time and effort trying to control and eliminate them. It is a battle I will never win because I’m getting ever older and worn out and they are forever new and vigorous each year. So when they bloom in the early fall, I admire them, and I curse them and my stupidity. I console myself by saying that, in the event of a famine, we can dig them up and choke them down to keep from starving. And I mean choke.

Sunchokes.

I was in school every day last week except Thursday. That limited my time to do things at home, but even so, I managed to accomplish a lot in the evenings. We continued to boil and sauce tomatoes all week. I was able to mow. I went around the garden and gathered seeds from flowers to store for next year’s garden – basket flower, cleome, and sweet Williams. I got several more pickings of raspberries.

We had unexpected frosts on Thursday and Friday morning. None of the weather services issued frost warnings. I think that’s because the only place in the nation that got frost was cold Gold. Sometimes I wonder if a remnant of the glacier that covered this area during the last Ice Age is buried under Gold and that’s why it’s always colder here. Neither day’s frost was of the hard killing kind, they didn’t burn things to a crisp, but the tender plants are looking sad and battered after so many onslaughts. I almost wish a hard frost would come now and put them out of their misery.

Pumpkins almost ready to harvest.

The back porch has become a Tomato Rescue Center. The vines out in the big garden are still hanging on, but getting weaker with each cold night. They are still full of green tomatoes. I go out every day and look for any signs of color in the green fruit and if I find it, I pick them and bring them to the back porch shelves. There they will sit to ripen, if they will. If they do, they get processed into sauce, if they don’t they go to the chickens or the compost. I also have the tomatoes that I’m saving for seed out there. They are in containers where they will rot and ferment. Tomato seeds are most viable when they have gone through that process. It’s disgusting to watch it, but necessary for next year’s success.

On Thursday Kurt pulled up another row of beans and I helped him hang them in the farm house to dry. These were black beans. The only beans left in the ground now are the garbanzos and I don’t know if they will make it. They like hot summers and require a long growing period – over a hundred days to maturity – and that usually doesn’t happen here. The plants are loaded with little pods with unripe beans in them – just one or two to a pod. They have survived four frosts now, but I think they won’t last as long as they need to. It was an experiment to attempt to grow them. A failed one, I suspect.

Drying beans.

As the week went on, my traveling anxiety began to build. I was looking forward to my visit with Geoffrey and his family, but the traveling to and from caused the usual dread to start kicking in. I love being other places, I just don’t like the process of getting there and back. Airports and airplanes – all the people, the lines, needing to be somewhere at a precise time – it all makes me very nervous. Especially when I’m traveling alone as I was this time. It didn’t help matters that several times during the week video reels popped up on my social media accounts showing airplane crashes. It was almost as if the internet was trying to scare me. Stacey. Miriam, and Hannah left on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with the Thayns and Fosters in Toledo. After they left and I was home all by myself, it was almost too much. I made myself an early dinner and then went outside until it got dark. The house was too empty.

Helenium and purple verbena bonariensis.

I didn’t sleep well that night. I never do when I’m the only one home. That plus my nervousness about traveling made me toss and turn all night. Saturday morning I got up at my usual early hour. I packed my bags. Then I sat in the dark and waited for the sun to come up. It was a gloomy overcast morning. As I sat there watching the world slowly grow light, running what I had to do that day through my mind over and over, I kept reminding myself that people travel all the time. Flying is no big deal. Airports were designed to assist travelers, not to hinder or frighten them (maybe). I kept reminding myself that by the end of the day I would be with Geoffrey and Joni and Ellie, Gwen, and Henry, and how happy that would make me. That worked a little. I did the chores early, which confused the chickens. At 1:30 p.m. Kurt and Julie came to pick me up and drive me to the airport in Rochester.

Rochester airport is really nice. It’s a smaller airport. When I got there, I went right through TSA, no waiting. My flights, first to Detroit and then on to Salt Lake City went without a hitch. I arrived in SLC around 10:00 p.m. MDT. Geoffrey was there to pick me up. By the time we got to his house in Herriman, the children were in bed asleep. I said hello to Joni, was shown to my bed, and I was soon asleep as well. It was 11:00 p.m. in Utah, but it was 1:00 a.m. in Pennsylvania, and my brain and my body knew it.

Sunday was an important day. It’s always important, but this one was especially so. My reason for being there was that Geoffrey has been called to serve as first counselor in his ward’s bishopric. Therefore, he needed to be ordained a high priest and he wanted me to do that. In sacrament meeting they released the two former counselors and sustained the new ones. After that meeting we met in the high council room where I ordained him and then his stake president set him apart. Geoffrey is excited to serve in his new calling and I know he will enjoy it and be blessed for it. He lives in a big Utah ward – well, big compared to the little branch I preside over.

After church we went back to the house, had lunch and enjoyed the rest of the day together. We sat and talked and got caught up on what was going on in everyone’s life. Ellie played the piano for me. I got to chat with Gwen and Henry. And I got to spend time with Geoffrey and Joni.

On Monday, the children went to school. Joni teaches school online so she went to her office in their front room. Geoffrey and I spent the day together. I wanted to see the work that is being done on the Salt Lake Temple, so we drove into the city. We parked under the Conference Center and went in. The Conference Center was practically empty. I’m always impressed by how magnificent it is. I guess it seemed almost empty, but that’s because it’s a huge building. There were people there preparing things for this weekend’s General Conference. They were washing windows and cleaning floors. There were sister missionaries and they offered to give a tour, which we did. We went into the auditorium. I see the auditorium all the time when I watch General Conference at home, but to be in that huge space is amazing. It seats 21,000 people. We got to walk down toward the front. There were people in there cleaning seats. We heard them testing the organ. It was cool to stand there in the vast and empty room and realize that later in the week at home, I’d be seeing it again at home, full of people as we watch conference.

In the auditorium at the Conference Center.

The auditorium at the Conference Center.

From there, we walked through the building, looked at the artwork on display, and then went up to the roof gardens. From the roof you can look across at the temple. It is still covered in scaffolding and there is ongoing construction work all around it. It took the pioneer saints forty years to build the temple. It was dedicated in 1893 and has served the church for 130 years. The renovation is estimated to be completed in 2026. I want to go to the open house when they are done. It is a magnificent building. My parents were sealed there in 1957.

A painting of the Second Coming of Christ in the Conference Center.

Construction work on Temple Square.

After that, it was lunch time and Geoffrey asked me where I wanted to go to eat. He needn’t have asked, we both knew the answer – In-N-Out Burger. We drove back to Herriman to what we consider to be Geoffrey’s In-N-Out. I let him order for me because he knows the best meal – a Double-Double Animal Style, Animal Style Fries (well done) and a Neopolitan Shake. What a great treat!

At the In-N-Out Burger.

Lunch with Geoffrey.

From there we went to an Asian market that Geoffrey found near where he works. It was the biggest Asian market I’ve ever seen in the USA. We walked up and down the aisles. They had all sorts of food and other things from Japan, China, Korea, and other Asian countries. We picked out a few things to take home as a treat for his family – some flavored mochi, chu-chus (like Otter Pops,only better), and Calpis a kind of drink. It was fun looking at all those oriental things. 

The Asian Market.

Then we went home. The children came home from school. We had dinner and afterward we sampled our Japanese treats, which received general approval. Then we had Family Home Evening followed by a puppet show written by Gwen. Then the children said good-by to me and went to bed and Geoffrey, Joni, and I sat and talked a while. Then it was bedtime. Geoffrey and I had to be up early the next morning to go back to the airport.

Dinner.

Performing Gwen's puppet show.

Geoffrey took me to the airport yesterday morning and I spent the day flying home. I went from Salt Lake City to Chicago (O’Hare is not my favorite airport) and on to Rochester, where Kurt and Julie were waiting to pick me up and bring me home.

Flying home over the Rocky Mountains.

It was a short trip, but it was so great to spend some time with Geoffrey and his family. They are planning to come out here next summer and we can hardly wait to be together again. As usual, the anxiety I felt before leaving was mostly unwarranted. I think maybe I'd be less anxious if I traveled more often. Perhaps more adventures abroad would make me a savvy traveler.

On my morning walk - the meadow.

On my morning walk - the corn patch.

On my morning walk - headed home.

This morning I took my usual walk, but the sky was not usual. There was a beautiful sunrise. I considered it a welcome home sign. I was in school today and as soon as I got home I did the chores and hopped on the mower to mow up leaves. I’m not in school for the rest of the week (so far) and I have a long list of things I need to get done. The garden is fading fast and it’s time to start cleaning things up. I try not to think of it as getting ready for winter so much as I’m getting things ready for next spring.