SEPTEMBER

Even though some of my garden is still blooming, like my Dahlia (“Muskoka Sunrise”)  ...and there are tasks to be done.....

    ....or the Coleus is in its glory, 

I think I agree with Vita Sackville-West when she wrote this:

"It is a sad moment when the first phlox appears.  It is the amber light indicating the end of the great burst of
early summer and suggesting that we must now start looking forward to autumn.  Not that I have any objection
to autumn as a season, full of its own beauty; but I just cannot bear to see another summer go, and I recoil
from what the first hint of autumn means."
-   Vita Sackville-West

And then some other times when I am bemoaning the end of summer, I forget what other pleasures await me in the early fall…. longer evenings, the softness of my sofa cuddled with pillows and an eager puppy; a few candles lit that on hot summer nights would not be welcome; a favourite cocktail  that has a bit more of a punch than  my summer favourite and the odd night when a soft sweater or shawl is more than welcome. 

I always loved this song.....

"Try to remember the kind of September

When life was slow and oh so mellow 

Try to remember the kind of September

When grass was green and grain so yellow

Try to remember the kind of September

When you were a young and a callow fellow

Try to remember and if you remember

Then follow--follow...." 

Lyrics by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt 

The air is different: the sky’s blue is clearer and oh, those magnificent late summer voluminous clouds. 

"the air is different today

the wind sings with a new tone

sighing of changes

coming

the harvest gathered

a flower, a nut

some mead, and bread

a candle and a prayer

returning the fruits

in thanksgiving

to the grove

and receiving

it's blessing

again"

-   Rhawk, Alban Elfed

Clouds take on another meaning when the hurricane season begins in September. 

Huracan, the Taino god of wind, gave hurricanes their name.

"September morn"

Do you remember how we danced that night away
Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play
September morning still can make me feel this way."
-   Neil Diamond and Gilbert Becaud

"The golden-rod is yellow; 

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusty pods the milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,

In every meadow nook;

And asters by the brook-side

Make asters in the brook,

From dewy lanes at morning

The grapes' sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

 By all these lovely tokens 

 September days are here,

 With summer's best of weather,

 And autumn's best of cheer.

 But none of all this beauty

 Which floods the earth and air

 Is unto me the secret

 Which makes September fair.

T'is a thing which I remember;

To name it thrills me yet:

One day of one September

I never can forget." 

-  Helen Hunt Jackson, September  

These were my glorious apples - I had 7 but 4 vanished, so I picked these three, although not quite ripe...and had them with some very old cheddar.... divine.

All this talk about September, with poems and pretty pictures reminds me there are some tasks that need to be done this month.... 

Read on.....

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My true story: “The Little Bird Who Fell From the Sky”

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