Emily Dickinson was right...

The morns are meeker than they were --

The nuts are getting brown --

The berry's cheek is plumper --

The Rose is out of town.

The Maple wears a gayer scarf --

The field a scarlet gown --

Lest I should be old fashioned

I'll put a trinket on.

Can you feel the change? A season is ending...we're teetering somewhere between summer and fall. Only six days ago we sweltered through a softball game where temperatures reached 99 degrees. However; the last few days, temperatures have been only in the 60's.

Yes...summer is ending and while we might be reluctant to accept this fact, something inside seems to tell us it's time to move on. The goldenrod is now in bloom and will provide the honeybees with their last bit of nectar to turn into honey for their winter food storage. Each day we can see them in our gardens working busily while time allows.

As for me, I feel the need to be busy as well...it's time to tidy, put the gardens to bed, double check the wood pile as well as our food storage. My mother-in-law and I are ordering Concord grapes, and soon the kitchen will be filled with the sweet scent of grapes waiting to be turned into jams & jellies. It's time to freeze green beans and dig potatoes...earnest nesting is how I heard this once described.

And so it's a time of change...but that's okay. It's comforting to know as the seasons come and go, each one brings along with it something wonderful...something perhaps we've forgotten in the past year. Here in the Midwest, the summer sun has taken on a coppery glow, the crickets are chirping, field corn is drying, and soybeans are yellowing.

And so it's good to remember, that to every ending, there is a new beginning.