A Little Note about Nothing Much...

This morning everything is dripping from night rain, but the sun is shining through the clouds over the eastern hills. We are expecting fair weather for the weekend, though seasonally cool, so my "to do" list grows longer: roll up and bring in the garden hose, clip back some plants that are "done" for the year, cut back dead blooms on the mums, and bring in the rag rug from the front deck. As I wrote this post, the softest rain began to fall, so I ran outside and took a couple of photos. The photo below is of one end of a rainbow across the western sky.

I've included a photos of sunflowers and yellow-orange mums taken this morning. You can see those flowers looking very different, in this post a year ago today.

photos by Aisling, October 12, 2007

A Cold Morning on the Hill...

A cold wind is blowing this morning. The early morning scramble for heavy jackets inspired me to clean out the front coat closet. It looks tidy and smells like lemon-grass and ginger essential oils and I have discovered a few things: Sijo has lost his winter coat, which would still fit him this year as it was purchased a little large last winter. I'll just add that to the shopping list. Haiku doesn't like any of the women's winter coats in our closet. None of them were purchased especially for her, and none of them quite suit her style. This may be the year that I buy her a good quality new one, since at nearly 15 years old, she is not going to get much taller (much to her dismay!)

I also noticed that this closet is one of the spaces in my home that has never been painted, beyond the initial one coat of ivory paint, that has faded and chipped over the years we've lived here. I may have to do a closet "make-over" this fall, as I did with my linen closet earlier this year. Hopefully I have some nice paints on hand in the basement left over from some other projects.

My good intentions are piling up like old magazines around the house. I have projects I want to do, breads to bake, autumn tasks in the garden to tend to. But these days, my mornings are dedicated to appointments or laundry, my afternoons to working, my evenings to after-school activities and homework. These obligations set the pace of my days and I have not yet found the quiet niches of time for reading, writing, or even rolling up my sleeves and tackling a project. I will... I just haven't yet.

I will make the time this weekend to pop some tulip bulbs in the ground with Tanka (he helped me pick them out) and to twist pretzels in the kitchen on Sunday afternoon.

photo by Aisling, October 2007, Cloud Tower over the back hill.

Poetry Thursday - October

A child looking at ruins

grows younger but cold

and wants to wake to a new name

I have been younger in October

than in all the months of spring

walnut and may leaves the color

of shoulders at the end of summer

a month that has been to the mountain

and become light there

the long grass lies pointing uphill

even in death for a reason

that none of us knows

and the wren laughs in the early shade now

come again shining glance in your good time

naked air late morning

my love is for lightness

of touch foot feather

the day is yet one more yellow leaf

and without turning I kiss the light

by an old well on the last of the month

gathering wild rose hips

in the sun

by W.S. Merwin, The Love of October

I think these thoughts about October are beautifully expressed. Someone please remind me to kiss the light by an old well on the last of the month, and to gather wild rose hips in the sun!

photos by Aisling, October 2007 1) Galliardia and Coreopsis in the evening light 2) Wild Rose Hips on the back hill

Sunday Stroll - Wild Harvest

The subdued tones of autumn, the mellow golds and brittle browns, may look like things are dying for the year, but as I took my walk yesterday afternoon what I saw all around was life replenishing itself. Stalks of tall grass were dropping seed into the creek bed and milkweed pods were swelling with their own downy seeds. Ripe grapes and viburnum berries, rose hips and thistle seed offered a feast to wild creatures, while ensuring their own abundant return.

photo by Haiku 1) Praying Mantis photos by Aisling: 2) Wild Grapes 3) Green Milkweed Pod 4) the seeds of a wild creek grass 5) thistle 6) rose hips 7) wild purple asters

The Seeking Moon

So often I see the September full moon called the harvest moon, and it is certainly a fitting name. As the full moon lit the sky the other night, I drove my oldest daughter and my exchange daughter to judo class. The moon was low and large, illuminating the lake with a cool wash of light. On the way home, very late in the evening, road-side farm markets were bathed in moon glow. At one market, shadows danced betwixt wagons overflowing with pumpkins and bushel baskets filled with hardy mums.

My favorite source for moon names, however, refers to September's full moon as "The Seeking Moon." That name intrigues me... slows me down to contemplate it's meaning. The Dalai Lama said, "I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we are all seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness..."

What are you seeking, as September mellows into October and the earth offers up her bountiful harvest?

photo Aisling, September 27, 2007

Poetry Thursday - Tanka

According to ShadowPoetry.com, tanka is "a classic form of Japanese poetry related to the haiku with five unrhymed lines of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables. (5, 7, 5, 7, 7)" Here is a nice description of "American Tanka." Though I do not see it mentioned in these two websites, one of the things that originally led me to choose this form of poetry for my youngest child, was the mention of the "unexpected." He often does what I least expect!

With those explanations of Tanka in mind, I wrote the following this morning (though I have not included the "unexpected" element as well as I perhaps should have):

The road through autumn
is freckled with falling leaves
scattered by the wind.
One morning, frost gilds the earth
in silver bits of winter.

~ Aisling, September 27, 2007

photo by Aisling, 9/25/07, the garden path

Sunday Stroll - Autumn Arrives...

I usually buy one new variety of mum each year, unless a friend gifts me with some. Taking these photos this morning, I realized that I didn't have any orange mums, so I bought an orange mum called "warm igloo" (not in any of the photos) this afternoon at the nursery. I also bought two orange crocosmias. I guess it was my day to add orange to the garden. All I need now is a few pumpkins on the porch.

photos by Aisling, 1) Echo Bronze Mum 2) red mums 3) last year's red mum 4) pink mums transplanted from my sister-in-law's garden 5) yellow "Dendranthema" mums 6) another red mum 7) violet-pink mums shared by a family friend 8) little yellow mum purchased as a $1 bargain plant late last autumn, growing with blue veronica.