Fall from Grace
Fall is not a graceful time. It seems so indeterminate. One day summer, the next day winter. You never know how to dress. Layers discarded all over the house then frantically searched for later as the sun wanes and the evening chill moves in. And not a time to be lazy. There are things to still harvest and process, container gardens to clean out or move inside or plant in a bed. There are hoses to untangle from the uncut grass and coil up and store. I hang them from fence posts above the snow though one winter the snow came over the fence. Firewood to stack inside the woodshed or under the cover of the front porch. I learned the hard way on this when early snows buried three cords of wood and froze them to the ground beneath the snow. No warm fires that winter. That was, I believe, the same winter I found out it was not wise to depend upon frequent trips to the grocery store just five miles away. Be like the ant and not the grasshopper and stock the larder and the freezer. ...