I harvested the winter squash a day or so ago. They’re gorgeous! They’re on pallets in the front yard supposedly drying/curing, though I don’t think the rain is helping.
The weather is cool and rainy again—nice change from scorching summer—and we have a small fire going in the wood cookstove, even though we haven’t yet closed any of the windows.
They’re all growing up so fast!
This is the Wild Geese pattern. I’m trying to figure out a way to incorporate Mary Oliver’s poem, but I’m not sure I’m up to that much embroidery!
After a cool and rainy few days we are all feeling very autumnal. Today I am going to harvest all my Red Kuris—which were astoundingly productive—and this weekend maybe we’ll dig up the experimental sweet potatoes and see how they did. It’s time to buy and plant pansies, but ED’s pet rabbit has been running free in the yard all summer, and I’m fairly certain that he will find baby pansies delectable. So something is going to have to happen with him! He’s cute as he can be, but kind of a nuisance, too: he has fallen in love with a mama hen who is also running free in the yard, but it’s an unrequited kind of love, and there is much commotion whenever he tries to get close to the object of his affection.
Anyway, it’s fall, and we’re all enjoying the change in the weather. Yesterday we had a fire in the cookstove all day, and DH is plugging along on the pretty stone hearth he’s been working on for the heat stove. I’m so excited to have that thing hooked up—I think it will make for a much more pleasant winter.
I spent the weekend cutting out squares for a quilt. I’ve had a strange burst of craftiness the last month or two—unusual for me, at least in recent years! When the girls were little, I enjoyed knitting and sewing, but as they got bigger those activities fell by the wayside for me, maybe because they always had so many projects going on! Maybe I’ll post some pictures of my various projects later.
Zinnias are cheerful bordering on silly—I love them!
Looking at the water droplets on the leaves, you can sure see where it gets its name! None of us can resist popping the seed pods this time of year—they’re so explosive!
ED took this shot of persimmons on her walk this morning. Evidently the puppies love them so much they suck them out of the gravel. They are pretty wonderful when they’re all the way ripe!
Depression Days
Hard times are here again.
My mother recognizes them,
speaks to me from her
grave.
Waste not, want not.
A penny saved is a penny
earned. A woman can
throw more out the back
door than a man can bring
in the front.
I open up the long silence
of her words, see her walk
the miles to teach all day,
return at dusk,
feed chickens, gather eggs
to sell or barter, some
chickens run before heads
roll and they are
Sunday dinner;
watch her milk cows, head
pressed firmly ‘gainst the bovine’s
belly, fingers gripped around long
teats, she pulls straight down
until milk flows.
I see the bean crop left to rot
atop the ground for lack of sale,
know years the harvest couldn’t pay
for next year’s seed, feel her panic
through sleepless nights.
Sometimes I seek her presence inside
this house as I sip tea, snack on cheese,
read the Sunday Times at $5.00 a copy.
I hear echoes of her voice thru distant air,
“Be prudent, calm your fear.”
– Joyce Holmes McAllister