Bottling the Light

It’s just short of two months since I last posted and it feels much, much longer than that.  So many things keep happening.  For a while, we seemed suspended between summer and fall, with cooler temperatures and green trees.  Then, in one weekend, there was a transformation.  Like a little color bomb.

This maple seemed to go red overnight.

Since then, we’ve had some extraordinarily beautiful days where the leaves seem to give off their own light.  One windy day recently, the leaves blowing down looked like falling tea lights.

If this were a lamp, I’d buy it!

And of course the light itself is changing, its slant and tint, and intensity.  It’s gone a bit pale.

Still, with the leaves as they’ve been, that color is intensified by the paler light.

I’ve been working in the garden as well as enjoying fall’s last flashy dance.  In fact this weekend, I put my plot to bed.  With the help of a fellow gardener, I also cleared the large Plot Against Hunger plot.  It remains to be weeded a bit more and then heavily composted.

I may have the start of an asparagus patch.

The small plot that we had also dedicated to AFAC is going back to the garden for people who want to garden but can’t manage a larger plot.  I cleared that out as well last weekend.  Like the large plot, it needs a bit more weeding and then the compost.  I can get that done in the next couple weekends if we have a nice day!

It’s nice to see the calendulas thriving. They do like the cool weather.

The year wound up well, with peppers and eggplants and a last rush of green beans.  I had planted some arugula and beets and those came on as well.

I’m thinking arugula, beets, walnuts, and chèvre.

The last bouquet was poignant.  It’s hard to get used to going flowerless after such amazing decoration for months!

I have an abundance of green tomatoes, which I’ve put in a paper bag with two bananas in hopes they ripen.  I haven’t the heart for pickled green tomatoes this year, but a few may get fried with batter.  We’ll see what they do in the bag.

Yup, that’s a pile of tomatoes…

In the meantime, I’ve brought out my candles to enjoy in the early evenings.  We’re expecting snow, sleet and rain, otherwise known as wintry mix, on Thursday.  It’s a bit early for that, but I’m ready as I’ll be!