Fall: Surrounded by the Beauty of Leaves

 "October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again."
Hal Borland 

Virginia creeper through the garden gate...

a crab apple in fall colors...

 and a maple continuing to turn. Yes, a higher horizon definitely. 

Fall: Last Harvest of the Vegetable Garden

We only got a slight frost this week, but it was time to harvest the last of our vegetables. Our pantry shelves are overflowing with preserved foods. Our freezer is full of frozen fruits and vegetables.

It was a bountiful year. JEJ also picked all the grapes today for jam making later in the week. The winter squashes were ready to pick, and we decided to just pick the tomatoes green.

As soon as the garden is done each year we release the chickens to devour their own bounty. They also dig up grubs and find eggs of some pesky insects that would show up next year. They were in heaven today and felt a new sense of freedom.

I look forward to enjoying soups, breads, sauces, and oven dishes prepared with our own vegetables during the winter months.

The garden in August.

The garden today.
Growing a vegetable garden is definitely a worthwhile venture.Thanks JEJ for all your work!

Fall: October Days

 October always means....
cooler mornings
shorter days
first frost
purple asters blooming

fires inside the Annie Room
smoky smell in the neighborhood

mums blooming
leaves turning
garden reaching the end
squash ready to harvest
planting bulbs for spring

fires in the gazebo
cats moving inside
flannel sheets on the bed
firewood being cut
and....burning bush burning.
I love October.

Fall: Something Beautiful

 Something Beautiful

by  H. Sokolova

Watching the last of these days disappear
feeling the air get colder
seeing the world get darker.
Memories of lying on the grass
of the sun warming my closed eyes.

Now, the warmth is gone
the sunshine is gone
the world has turned into something new
something colder, something darker
something different,

something Beautiful.

Fall: One Red Leaf

 "The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky."

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Fall: Filled With Beauty

In one walk through the gardens one can find plenty of beauty in fall. That is why I love it so much.