Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Day One Hundred Seventy-Six
I find myself watching TV or a video and wondering when it was made - what year? I can imagine the camera panning out, way out, out until I see exactly what Eric was doing when that TV program or video was made. I take comfort in the fact that while I'm watching, I know that Eric was out there, alive, doing something, anything, but not gone. Eric's goneness - I'm having a hard time with that - an incredibly hard time.
Day One Hundred Seventy Five
The season's beginning to wind down and the vegetables have certainly earned their rest. Never have I harvested as many bountiful offerings as I have this season. I do believe the wet winter was very kind to my fresh vegetable appetite. It's what I love about the summer - not so much the hot temperatures, although it didn't get about 100 degrees here all summer which helped my crop abundance tremendously. No matter how much water you put on the plants, temperatures above 100 degrees are deadly for the tender little veggies setting on the plants. The only downside of having a garden is the necessity to stay home and water it. Long summer weekends away are nice during the summer, but the plants suffer for it.
I started all my plants from seed this year, buying only heirloom varieties. The large squash are Ettiennes and I can't wait to cut into one of them. I'm just waiting for the right recipe inspiration. Maybe a squash and carrot soup as I have many heirloom carrots as well. They were especially prolific as they were the small round variety which doesn't take much soil depth. The little round ones are also very beautiful left whole and added to soup or stew.
As you can see, there are a couple of grape clusters. Bob and I picked 28 lbs on October 1st and began our little wine experiment. I had stopped by the local home brew-it shop and purchased a few items needed to make wine. Right now the mash is fermenting and we're hoping for a couple of bottles.
I have always loved the fall season - all the bounty of the garden which yields an ever bigger bounty as each summer passes, the turning of the leaves which have sheltered us from the sun during those hot days of summer, and the crispness in the air when the cold begins to creep in, pushing the warm thick air out into the sky where it will linger until another summer rolls around once again. I like to imagine it just playing high in the atmosphere waiting for it's time to return to the Earth once again. The birds are beginning their fly through and are now frequenting the yard in waves. The dog is curled up a little tighter among her blankets in the dog house. The waining of the light is making it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. The fall season is here once again and I am without all the familiarity of past autumns.
I am not as sad as I have been these past several months, and I believe a veil of numbness has descended and covered me. I'm not sure if it's a subconscious survival reaction as the autumn can be a very sad time of the year, bringing on a sense of melancholia. Long shadows from the lowering angle of the sun, give everything a presence that makes it hard to know soon they will be gone. It seems it's almost as if the sun wants us to remember how much joy, pleasure and protection those plants, in all their costumed splendor, gave us during the heat of the summer before they loose their leaves and hanker down for the cold of the winter. Maybe that's what happens to all of us - we loose our blood, our flesh and our bones to the season of death, but we sleep through the winter of our existence until we too can return to give joy, pleasure and protection to those we love and have loved. It is too cruel to believe we are just gone.
As you can see, there are a couple of grape clusters. Bob and I picked 28 lbs on October 1st and began our little wine experiment. I had stopped by the local home brew-it shop and purchased a few items needed to make wine. Right now the mash is fermenting and we're hoping for a couple of bottles.
I have always loved the fall season - all the bounty of the garden which yields an ever bigger bounty as each summer passes, the turning of the leaves which have sheltered us from the sun during those hot days of summer, and the crispness in the air when the cold begins to creep in, pushing the warm thick air out into the sky where it will linger until another summer rolls around once again. I like to imagine it just playing high in the atmosphere waiting for it's time to return to the Earth once again. The birds are beginning their fly through and are now frequenting the yard in waves. The dog is curled up a little tighter among her blankets in the dog house. The waining of the light is making it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. The fall season is here once again and I am without all the familiarity of past autumns.
I am not as sad as I have been these past several months, and I believe a veil of numbness has descended and covered me. I'm not sure if it's a subconscious survival reaction as the autumn can be a very sad time of the year, bringing on a sense of melancholia. Long shadows from the lowering angle of the sun, give everything a presence that makes it hard to know soon they will be gone. It seems it's almost as if the sun wants us to remember how much joy, pleasure and protection those plants, in all their costumed splendor, gave us during the heat of the summer before they loose their leaves and hanker down for the cold of the winter. Maybe that's what happens to all of us - we loose our blood, our flesh and our bones to the season of death, but we sleep through the winter of our existence until we too can return to give joy, pleasure and protection to those we love and have loved. It is too cruel to believe we are just gone.
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