October magic...a joyously busy time.

October has ushered in the harvest season...and with that she has flung a brilliantly colored cloak across the fields, valleys, and woods. 

A week ago I decided it was time to put the garden to bed, and I spent the afternoon picking the last of the peppers (who this year have refused to stop sharing their bounty!) and removed spent plants, then tilled the garden under. Except for the row of peppers...I just couldn't! They still have blooms, and if the weather is just right, we may yet harvest more.  While I was working the sun was bright and hot, it felt like a summer's afternoon, but that night a chill set in, and yesterday morning we had our first heavy frost, waking up to a temperature of 24 degrees. Brrr.

When October comes, I feel beset with busyness. It's such a happy time...the 
temperatures are cooler, the colors are glorious, and the nesting instinct has intensified. I can get more done without the humidity of summer, so I'm tackling chores as the days go by. Quilts are dancing on the clothesline, the porch has been swept and the rugs shaken.  It's also time to tuck the honeybees in for winter...this week the feeders need to come off, and soon the hives will be wrapped to keep them as safe and warm as possible. 

The last of the corn surrounding our farm has been harvested, and in the distance I can hear the corn dryers hard at work.

Wild bittersweet grows along a fence in a neighboring field, so I've come home with armfuls that have found spots both inside and out...mantels, cupboards, vintage buckets, and next to plump pumpkins are curly vines of dazzling orange berries that brighten the days.

It's my favorite month, in my favorite season. For me, a time like no other.

Sweet country life...simple country pleasures. October is the autumn idyll.