the golden days of autumn...

As September closes and we're on the doorstep of October, there is color everywhere. Not the summery colors we find in geraniums, sunflowers, and daisies, but the colors of fall. Yes, the grass is still green, but mixed in with that green are dark-brown cattails surrounding ponds, farm stands filled with yellow squash, orange pumpkins, golden sweetcorn, and orchards bursting with juicy red apples.

Here in our part of the world, the weather has become, for me, absolutely perfect. Sunshiny days in the 50's to 60's, and nights in the 40's. As October moves closer, we look forward to the wolf moon, bonfires, pumpkin carving, and glowing jack-o'-lanterns in the dark of Halloween night. It's time for warming soups, comfort food, crackling fires, cozy sweaters, and football games.

We are poised on the edge of cold and snow and want to be ready. Days have been spent stacking hay and firewood, cleaning goat and chicken houses, building tables to hold water tanks, counting food storage, cleaning and organizing freezers, and making any last minute repairs. I've been trying to keep myself busy ever since my youngest went to college, and because there's an endless list of things that need doing, I'm throwing myself into the middle of it with wild abandon, as the saying goes!

So while we enjoy the brilliant patchwork of autumn, knowing that a hard winter is most likely ahead, I'm working hard to enjoy the moment I am in. It's time to settle my noisy brain and appreciate the simple pleasures of this season, and savor each moment to the fullest...

beauty found in nature:

signs of harvest:

hay stacked for 
nosy goats and sleepy cats!

A Susan Branch quote says it best
(visit her here for magical inspiration)

slowly into autumn...

 It's beginning...a change of seasons.

And with it are so many lovely things to be enjoyed;

flowers are blooming,

tomatoes for harvesting,

a sweet little roadside flower stand, 

along with some flowers from that stand for cheering up the kitchen!

A gardening table that was found for a song (it's lined with tin).

Now, on to dreaming of a little greenhouse to put it in!

Now that the goldenrod flowers line the country roads, we know that one season is slipping into another. Summer is winding down...we can see it as well as sense it.

While some folks get "Spring Fever", I tend to get "Fall Fever." It's time to plan for what's ahead...check food storage, stack firewood, count hay bales - I guess I'd call it a worker ant agenda! (as well as a "keep busy because my youngest just left for college" agenda.)

And while it's a time of change, it's good to know that some things endure, whether it's the changing seasons of nature or our own lives. I read a quote recently that said, 

"In every ending, there is a beginning." 

Again, I so appreciate the kind words shared with me...you are all so thoughtful.