October
Andrea Burke
Here’s something new and good. It’s October 1. A perfectly good time to fill your inbox or internet browser window with some good stuff. Here the maple leaves are final orange and red, the remaining garden flowers are about to give up the ghost, and I’m still harvesting carrots, gourds, and beans from the last few green patches. Two ravens perch in the dying locust tree behind our house, the farmer has hayed his field for the last time, and soup makes a royal and regular return to our menu.
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Here’s what songs are on repeat:
Recipes That Will 100% Hit Our Table This Month:
A Poem I Force My Children to Listen to:
Come, Little Leaves
by George Cooper (this poem is in the public domain)
" Come, little leaves, " said the wind one day,
" Come o'er the meadows with me and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold,
For summer is gone and the days grow cold. "
Soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call,
Down they came fluttering, one and all;
Over the brown fields they danced and flew,
Singing the glad little songs they knew.
" Cricket, good-by, we've been friends so long,
Little brook, sing us your farewell song;
Say you are sorry to see us go;
Ah, you will miss us, right well we know.
" Dear little lambs in your fleecy fold,
Mother will keep you from harm and cold;
Fondly we watched you in vale and glade,
Say, will you dream of our loving shade? "
Dancing and whirling, the little leaves went,
Winter had called them, and they were content;
Soon, fast asleep in their earthy beds,
The snow laid a coverlid over their heads.
A Poem I Love:
The Love of October - W. S. Merwin
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.
What We’re Doing in the Garden:
Harvesting the fall garden - carrots, greens, beans, sweet potatoes, green tomatoes, gourds, remaining pumpkins, and seed collecting, of course!
Getting ready to plant garlic and shallots at the end of the month! I usually aim to plant between Halloween and Thanksgiving.