Once we were young and the world was new

We picked up this morning our first autumn share of the Community Supported Agriculture [CSA] program of which we’re members. In the box were:

• BUTTERCUP SQUASH
• COLLARD GREENS
• CUCUMBER
• EGGPLANT
• GREEN PEPPER and
• TOMATOES

[The squash has already been turned into part of Thanksgiving dinner by the Better Half. It’s been processed and frozen.]

A couple of the farm fields we drove past had large flocks of Canada geese feeding in them. They’ll probably hang around our North Country until any possible food is covered with snow, which often happens about the time that almost all open water becomes covered with ice in late November or early December.

late August: drought stress?

Photo by J. Harrington

More maples are showing gold-flame-scarlet leaves. Others, I think beech, have traded green leaves for yellow. Colors are still spotty and sparse overall. Real color will come after Autumn Equinox this season. Last year colors came early due to drought. It’s possible what we’re seeing so far is due to this year’s drought stress.

First Fall

By Maggie Smith

I’m your guide here. In the evening-dark

morning streets, I point and name.

Look, the sycamores, their mottled,

paint-by-number bark. Look, the leaves

rusting and crisping at the edges.

I walk through Schiller Park with you

on my chest. Stars smolder well

into daylight. Look, the pond, the ducks,

the dogs paddling after their prized sticks.

Fall is when the only things you know

because I’ve named them

begin to end. Soon I’ll have another

season to offer you: frost soft

on the window and a porthole

sighed there, ice sleeving the bare

gray branches. The first time you see

something die, you won’t know it might

come back. I’m desperate for you

to love the world because I brought you here.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.