We’re more than halfway through October. It seems to me that the days are getting shorter and going by faster too. Here in the latter half of October, the world is starting to look a bit more November dull – soon it will be mostly browns and tans and grays – and then white. The autumn leaves are past their prime now – in fact, most of them are gone. We had some wind and rain last week that brought them down. They weren’t very colorful this year. Whatever the conditions were (wet, dry, warm, or cold – everyone seems to have their theory) that were necessary for brilliance, they didn’t happen – again. The leaves may be gone from my trees, but there are still plenty on the ground. I’ve raked them up, mowed them up, piled them up and burned them, and yet there are always more. After my trees are bare, the wind blows leaves in from someone else’s trees. I’ve even found beech and red oak leaves in my yard, which means the wind has carried them down all the way from the woods at the top of the hill.
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| The bright colors are fading into browns and tans now. |
The weather has been chilly, but I worked all week at getting the garden tucked in for the winter. I dug up the roots that get stored – dahlias, cannas, and calla lilies – and put them down cellar. I dug up my gladiolus too, but made the mistake of setting them to cure where they were exposed to the freezing night air. They froze solid and then thawed to mush. I’ll have to order all new glads in the spring.
On Tuesday I tilled up the strip of vegetable garden that still gets tilled. The tilled portion gets smaller every year as I convert the vegetable garden to raised beds two beds at a time. I also tilled the orchard. I didn’t till it deeply. I set the tines on the shallowest setting, just enough to scratch the surface. I needed to do that in order to prepare the ground for the wildflower seeds that I’ll sow this week. The seeds need disturbed soil to germinate next spring. I’m looking forward to wild flowers in the orchard. I hope it works.
While tilling the orchard, I took notice of the empty spots. In the last few years I’ve had several fruit trees die. There are also several little replacement trees that have never really grown that I want to pull out. So I have room for six new trees. And lo, as if by some sort of harmonious cosmic coincidence, the Fedco Tree catalog arrived in the mail last week. I’ve already read through it several times and drawn up a preliminary list of apple trees to consider – Baldwin, Briggs Auburn, Cherryfield, Esopus Spitzenberg, Goldrush, Keepsake, Liberty, Trailman, Wickson, maybe another Northern Spy. I don’t have to make a final choice for a while. I’ll take great pleasure in contemplating it for a few weeks.
I’ve also been pondering on plans for the woodland garden. It isn’t woodland anymore. It looks so stark without the pine trees. I burned more branch piles during the week. There are still some things that haven’t burned, logs and thicker branches, but I’m tired of the smoke. I’ll have to get rid of whatever remains some other way than by fire. The patches of ferns and sweet woodruff that were under the trees were damaged by all the cutting, burning, and tromping around. I’ll be anxious to see what has survived to come up in the spring. I’ve drawn up a first draft list of replacement trees (some of them also from the Fedco catalog). I have room for five trees. All of them will be deciduous and all of them must have colorful fall leaves. Right now on my list I have gingko, katsura, shagbark hickory, butternut hickory, red oak, chestnut, yellow birch, walnut, and sourwood. I’ll whittle the list down as I meditate on it over the winter. I also have a list of under story shrubs – Carolina allspice, redbud, witch hazel, smoke tree, red and yellow twig dogwoods, mountain laurel, and more woodland azaleas. It’s exciting to plan it all. I realize that it will be many years before these trees will be mature enough to constitute a real woodland. I’m planting it for my grandchildren to enjoy.
On Tuesday I tilled up the strip of vegetable garden that still gets tilled. The tilled portion gets smaller every year as I convert the vegetable garden to raised beds two beds at a time. I also tilled the orchard. I didn’t till it deeply. I set the tines on the shallowest setting, just enough to scratch the surface. I needed to do that in order to prepare the ground for the wildflower seeds that I’ll sow this week. The seeds need disturbed soil to germinate next spring. I’m looking forward to wild flowers in the orchard. I hope it works.
While tilling the orchard, I took notice of the empty spots. In the last few years I’ve had several fruit trees die. There are also several little replacement trees that have never really grown that I want to pull out. So I have room for six new trees. And lo, as if by some sort of harmonious cosmic coincidence, the Fedco Tree catalog arrived in the mail last week. I’ve already read through it several times and drawn up a preliminary list of apple trees to consider – Baldwin, Briggs Auburn, Cherryfield, Esopus Spitzenberg, Goldrush, Keepsake, Liberty, Trailman, Wickson, maybe another Northern Spy. I don’t have to make a final choice for a while. I’ll take great pleasure in contemplating it for a few weeks.
I’ve also been pondering on plans for the woodland garden. It isn’t woodland anymore. It looks so stark without the pine trees. I burned more branch piles during the week. There are still some things that haven’t burned, logs and thicker branches, but I’m tired of the smoke. I’ll have to get rid of whatever remains some other way than by fire. The patches of ferns and sweet woodruff that were under the trees were damaged by all the cutting, burning, and tromping around. I’ll be anxious to see what has survived to come up in the spring. I’ve drawn up a first draft list of replacement trees (some of them also from the Fedco catalog). I have room for five trees. All of them will be deciduous and all of them must have colorful fall leaves. Right now on my list I have gingko, katsura, shagbark hickory, butternut hickory, red oak, chestnut, yellow birch, walnut, and sourwood. I’ll whittle the list down as I meditate on it over the winter. I also have a list of under story shrubs – Carolina allspice, redbud, witch hazel, smoke tree, red and yellow twig dogwoods, mountain laurel, and more woodland azaleas. It’s exciting to plan it all. I realize that it will be many years before these trees will be mature enough to constitute a real woodland. I’m planting it for my grandchildren to enjoy.
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| The empty woodland garden. |
The days are coming now when there will be less and less for me to do outdoors besides the daily chores down at the barn. The garden is dormant. The last of what few apples we had will be picked soon. It’s getting too cold for me to want to be outdoors much. These are the days when I start to shift to indoor adventures. I’ve already shifted my need to tend plants to fussing over my houseplants. I’ve begun a list of books I want to read and music I want to explore and movies I want to watch during the cold months.
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| Sunrise on Friday. |
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| Sunrise on Friday. |
There are certain things I’m always drawn to as the darkening days of fall move toward winter. I crave certain music – Brahms, and Chopin, and (always) Bach. This is the time of year when I find myself wanting to read Dickens. And I want to watch Shakespeare plays. I’m not sure why I crave them at this time of year, but I do. I have my favorite film adaptations of Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Loves Labors Lost, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream that I want to watch again and some different adaptations, especially Macbeth, that I want to explore. It’s a moody season and my brain craves well-crafted, complex things.
When I was in high school I memorized Macbeth’s last soliloquy and it has been stuck in my head for days (maybe due to the approach of Halloween). It’s near the end when Macbeth finds Lady Macbeth after she’s jumped to her death and he knows his end is near too (I just love Shakespeare).
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
How’s that for well-crafted and moody?
Yesterday was a typical, busy Saturday. It was cold in the morning, 23° and heavy frost, so I waited for things to warm up before I ventured out. I had a list of errands to run. I drove out to the Amish store to buy cheese. I drove into town to buy chicken feed, sand, and peat moss. The sand will be mixed with the wildflower seed I will sow this week to help spread it evenly. The peat moss is for packing away the last of my canna and calla lily roots. I took the scenic route everywhere I went – up over the hills to places where I knew there was still some color to be found. When I got back from my errands, I bundled up and did some work outdoors. The temperature only got to 45°. I unloaded chicken feed. I mowed up leaves for the last time. Later in the afternoon we had two loads of mushroom soil delivered. Tomorrow we will spread it out over our gardens and the Shillig’s gardens. It will rest over the winter and renew the soil in time for spring. At the end of the day as the sun was going down, there were strange wispy clouds and a sun dog and a patch of rainbow off in the west. Then as the sun set, the sky turned bright shades of fiery red in the west and pink and purple to the east. It was a perfect ending to a beautiful autumn day.
When I was in high school I memorized Macbeth’s last soliloquy and it has been stuck in my head for days (maybe due to the approach of Halloween). It’s near the end when Macbeth finds Lady Macbeth after she’s jumped to her death and he knows his end is near too (I just love Shakespeare).
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
How’s that for well-crafted and moody?
Yesterday was a typical, busy Saturday. It was cold in the morning, 23° and heavy frost, so I waited for things to warm up before I ventured out. I had a list of errands to run. I drove out to the Amish store to buy cheese. I drove into town to buy chicken feed, sand, and peat moss. The sand will be mixed with the wildflower seed I will sow this week to help spread it evenly. The peat moss is for packing away the last of my canna and calla lily roots. I took the scenic route everywhere I went – up over the hills to places where I knew there was still some color to be found. When I got back from my errands, I bundled up and did some work outdoors. The temperature only got to 45°. I unloaded chicken feed. I mowed up leaves for the last time. Later in the afternoon we had two loads of mushroom soil delivered. Tomorrow we will spread it out over our gardens and the Shillig’s gardens. It will rest over the winter and renew the soil in time for spring. At the end of the day as the sun was going down, there were strange wispy clouds and a sun dog and a patch of rainbow off in the west. Then as the sun set, the sky turned bright shades of fiery red in the west and pink and purple to the east. It was a perfect ending to a beautiful autumn day.
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| While driving around yesterday. |
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| View from the top of the Gazdag Road. |
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| Mushroom soil. |
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| Strange clouds with a rainbow (left) and sun dog (right). |
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| Saturday sunset west. |
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| Saturday sunset east. |
Today it is another picture perfect day. We’re home from church. The Shilligs had us over to their house for lunch. We are going back over at 4:00 to watch a devotional with them and have some pumpkin dump cake. It’s been a good Sabbath and it looks like the week ahead will be good.
