Dark Days of Autumn Rain

The first lines of a haunting Robert Frost poem have been tossing around inside my head today, as I remember with great sadness the loss of our seventeen year old friend one year ago. This is a poem for November, but it suits me today, so I'll share it here. When we grieve, I believe it helps to find solace in natural beauty... even in the stark days of autumn as the colors of the year fall away.

My November Guest

MY Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted gray
Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.

~ Robert Frost


photo of the backyard late this afternoon, taken through the window. There is light snow mixed with rain falling, though it doesn't show clearly.

Sunday Stroll - Between the Rains

It drizzled for much of the morning, but when the sun came out briefly, I grabbed my camera and slipped out the front door. A was greated by a arch of rainbow across the western sky. Here it is: south end in one photo, north end in the next.

I picked up two pears that had fallen off one of our little trees and tucked them into my pocket. I made my way past the vegetable garden. After several frosts, the green leaves are intricately entwined with gold and brown.

The butterfly garden seems to fade to silver before drying to shades of gray and brown. There is still freshness amid the drying stalks however, such as this campanula, or blue rain flower and these silver leaves of garden sage.

I had to snap my photos between raindrops. By the time I got back to the front door, the drops were falling faster and the wind was whipping the branches of the thundercloud plum in the front garden. I noticed that the little johnny jump ups, these tiny violas, were blooming again after laying fallow in the warmth of late summer. One more photo then, and I came back into the house. The heat of a wood fire warmed me as I loaded these photos. Since that time, hail and hard rain, with a few early flakes of snow, pelted the windows and rooftop. At this moment, the rosy gold woods are glowing in sunlight and the garden, just outside the windows, is sparkling with the fallen rain.

Sunday Stroll Invitation

The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools."

~ Henry Beston, Northern Farm

Leaves are falling. Rain has been falling for days. Temperatures are falling. We expect snow to fall any day now. Without consulting the calendar, I would know that late October has arrived. I am not sure that the drizzle will let up long enough for me to take my camera out into the garden; I'll let you know!

My daughters and I are visiting a friend's home this afternoon. Our drive to her house will take us down a winding road, lined with orchards and farm stands, piles of pumpkins, and fields of heavy brown sunflowers. My friend's home is nestled into the woods and edged with rambling gardens. We won't mind the cold rain when we are warm and dry in her comfy abode, drinking excellent hot coffee and sharing stories.

If you have time to stroll in the garden today, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

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Look who's strolling:

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Me here at the Quiet Country House

Joyce at Tall Grass Worship

Abbie at Farmer's Daughter

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Sunday Stroll - A Circle through the Seasons

No slow unfurling for this little Gertrude Jeckyl rose in this season. She rushed from bud to open bloom. I moved a bit briskly myself, as I went from the rose and herb garden to the vegetable garden. I found this lovely round Crimson Sweet watermelon, almost ready to bring in to eat. No need to chill before serving in this season.

I headed down the butterfly garden trail to find a few cosmos blooming amid the mums and silvering foliage.

I headed up the hill at the north end of the property, to complete the circle I walking. This was my view, looking back into the back yard toward the butterfly garden and the hill that rises beyond it.The circle path of my stroll brought me back to the front of the house, where I snapped these photos of these yellow mums, red mums, and the long gentle curve of my front garden.

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photos by Aisling, Sunday, October 19, 2008

Sunday Stroll Invitation

All those golden autumn days the sky was full of wings. Wings beating low over the blue water of Silver Lake, wings beating high in the blue air far above it . . . bearing them all away to the green fields in the South.

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

This "golden autumn day" is beginning with gray and windswept skies. This gusty breeze will hasten the falling of the leaves. Metaphorically, autumn is a complex month. In one way, it is all about letting go, and yet for many of us, it is the season of "tucking in" and gathering close. I'm a little behind in tucking the garden in for the year, and yet the season rolls on without me... leaves are dropping, tender plants withering in frosty mornings, and a laissez faire broadcasting of seeds on the wind. Today's stroll will be all about observation and enjoyment. I will save the "to do" list for another afternoon.

If you have time today to stroll in the garden today, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who's strolling:

Joyce at Tall Grass Worship

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Me here at The Quiet Country House

Imelda at Greenish Lady

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A little note

Like this tiny rosebud blooming in mid October, I do not know "whether I am coming or going." The days are so busy with school and work, and the evenings with home-tending, cooking and homework. Many of you may have noticed that I am finding very little time to blog or to read blogs. I have several new blogs that I would like to add to my blogroll, and a couple that have closed down that I would like to remove, but I have being having technical difficulties with editing my blogroll lately. Anyone else having problems there?

I will be strolling tomorrow, weather permitting. We are said to be experiencing peak color this weekend, so I don't want to miss my time in the garden. Please keep your eye out for my invitation tomorrow in the morning, and join me if you are able.

"In my spare time" I have been stocking the pantry at the annual canned good sale at my local grocers. I have kept to the basics, the things we know we actually use. I love the way the pantry, whose simple shelves I whitewashed a few years ago, looks stacked with cans of food, home canned food in jars, and boxes of pasta or plain crackers. I always try to stock up when things go on sale, but with the economy as it is right now, I felt compelled to do a little bit extra. When will I see canned beans at 2 cans for 77 cents again?

I am off to do an hour or two of homework and then take my sons to a birthday party. During the party, Haiku and I will be shopping for supplies for a school project (mine) and just enjoying the shades and textures of autumn. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I hope you enjoy the beauty of the day!

~ Aisling

photo by Aisling, October 15, 2008

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Sunday Stroll - Looking out at Autumn

The cordwood fort the boys and Limerick are building gets a little taller everyday. It is the perfect place to look out at Autumn spilling, like golden sunlight, on the eastern hills.

This yellow cone flower is just blooming, while its purple cousins have already gone to seed.

The peach tree leaves are in full color, while the pears on the Bosc pear tree are ripening.

There are seeds in the garden, on tall corn stalks, slender stems of dill, and low growing soybeans.

Bull Thistles drop showers of snowy seeds to the soft earth at the edge of the cultivated fields.

In the front garden a tiny cinquefoil blooms. This little wildflower found her way into the garden when last year's seeds dropped, and now she blooms quietly, tucked away beneath the mums.

All photos by Aisling, October 12, 2008

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Sunday Stroll Invitation

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together.

For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.

~Edwin Way Teale

The weather promises to be gorgeous here today. It will be a perfect afternoon for a ramble amid trees whose leaves are rich with color, and through fields of wildflower stalks, heavy laden with seeds. The same natural "scattering abroad" is occurring in the garden. The sedum between the slates in the trail has turned apricot, and the leaves of the daylilies are lemon-lime. The color is softer, richer and more poignant than the hues of summer.

If you have time today to stroll in the garden today, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who's strolling:

Linda at Vulture Peak Muse

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Joyce at Tall Grass Worship

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Sunday Stroll - Parade of Mums

Sunday Stroll Invitation

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

The sun is shinging brightly over the eastern hills this morning and I am eager to get outdoors. If you have time on today to stroll in the garden today, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

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Nan at Letters from a Hill Farm

Linda at Vulture Peak Muse

Me here at the Quiet Country House

Joyce at Tall Grass Worship

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

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Wordless Wednesday - Farewell to September

Geese take flight beneath the heavy clouds

as the sun sets on the last evening of September.

The first morning of October begins with a rainbow in the western sky.

photos by Aisling, September 30 and October 1, 2008