August Again

Swallows on a summer's evening.

Here we are in August already. To me, August is sad month in many ways. It is the month when I feel the summer start slipping away. It can still be hot and summery in August. In fact it is sometimes our hottest month. I hope it is this year. We haven’t had much hot weather. But the days are noticeably shorter now. It’s still dark when I get up in the mornings now. We often have ground fog in the mornings and that feels like fall to me. Parts of the garden are starting to look old now. There’s still a lot of work ahead in the garden and orchard. Tomato canning season hasn’t begun yet. It’s time to start a batch of sauerkraut and make pickle relish. The onions are ready to be pulled up and cured for storage. August work is hard work and harvesting is a fulfilling job. I feel thankful that I’ve been blest with something to harvest. But I also feel a little sad that we’ve come to this time already.

The dahlia's are blooming now.

I was reading one of my favorite authors last week, Edwin Way Teale, who wrote a series of books on the four seasons, North With the Spring, Journey Into Summer, Autumn Across America, and Wandering Through Winter. They are great books and I re-read them every few years. Last week I was reading Journey Into Summer and found passages that express exactly how I feel:

“Spring and autumn are constantly changing, active seasons. Summer is more stable, more predictable. We tend to consider it the high point of the year, with spring moving toward it and autumn retreating from it. To the average person, summer is the friend, winter the enemy. Instinctively summer is accepted as the normal condition of the earth, winter as the abnormal. Summer is ‘the way it should be.’ It is as though our minds subconsciously returned to some tropical beginning, some summer-filled Garden of Eden.”

The week began with an empty house. I say empty, but it really wasn’t. Stacey and I were here. It’s just that when there’s only the two of us, the house seems empty. Last year we did a short stretch as empty-nesters before Miriam came home and while Hannah was away at school. It seemed strange then and it seems strange now. I suppose I ought to try and get used to it since the odds are good that eventually it will be just the two of us here, but I’m enjoying having my children at home for as long as I can.

It was gloomy and rainy most of the week. I managed to mow our lawn and the Shillig’s on Monday and finished just as the next round of rain and thunderstorms began. All this rain has brought the mushrooms up. I think they are beautiful in their strange way.

Some of the mushrooms in my yard.

On Tuesday I went blueberry picking by myself. I took Stacey to work that morning and then drove up to the orchard and blueberry patch on the land owned by the people she works for. The bushes were loaded with fruit. I only picked for a little while as it started to drizzle and I didn’t want to get soaked. I froze the blueberries hoping to make some jam later on.

Blueberries.

Wednesday was the first day of August and, right on schedule, the first of my apples is ripe. Yellow Transparents are a soft apple. They originated in Russia. I have a huge, old standard Yellow Transparent tree and a younger semi-dwarf tree. They are both loaded with fruit this year. They always ripen in early August. They make the best applesauce of all my apples, very smooth and pale. I picked a bucketful of them on Wednesday and made the first applesauce of the season. I hope to can many more as the season progresses.

Miriam and Hannah arrived home from their visit to the Thayn’s on Wednesday evening. It’s good to have them home again. On Thursday evening we went to the Potter County Fair. It had stopped raining and we thought that was a good omen. We didn’t count on the mud. The fair grounds were a mess. But we persevered and followed our traditional route through the display buildings ending, as we always do, at the taffy seller’s booth.

At the County Fair.

On Friday evening Sarah, Tosh, and Sarah’s friend and former boss, Chef Orlando Santos, arrived. The people that Stacey, Miriam, and Hannah work for had a big family gathering on Saturday and Sarah and Chef Orlando were hired to cater it. They enlisted the help of the rest of the family and started food preparation at Julie’s house next door that night. The preparation continued Saturday morning and on throughout the day. The event was lunch and dinner. I didn’t go to the event or serve – Stacey, Hannah, and Miriam did – so I didn’t get to eat any of the food, but it looked wonderful. They brought the leftovers home and I’m looking forward to tasting it all. The event was a big success. Sarah, Tosh, and Orlando couldn’t stay for the whole weekend. They left this morning to go back to Detroit. Their visit was too short and everyone was so busy. They need to come back and stay longer.

Sarah and Chef Orlando and the tent at the event.

Saturday was the annual Herb Fair at Frosty Hollow and we participated again. We were worried about the weather, but it turned out to be a nice day. The drive out to Frosty Hollow was beautiful. We’ve set up a booth for our barn quilts at the Herb Fair for the last three years. This was our fourth year. There weren’t as many vendors or visitors this year and the grounds and gardens were not as nice. I think all the rain we’ve had had a lot to do with it. Anyway, Stacey and I spent a large part of the day there.

On the drive to Frosty Hollow - turkeys and the Rooks Road.

The Herb Fair.

Our booth at the Herb Fair.

Today is a beautiful summer Sabbath day. From the moment I woke up the day has been lovely. Everything is lush and green from all the rain and the sun is bright and warm today and it all looks and feels like a perfect summer day. The week ahead will be busy. I have projects to do before school starts at the end of the month. I relish these August days before everything goes back to a strict schedule. Now I must go down to do the afternoon chores. The chickens are waiting for me.

Sunflower in the pumpkin patch.