First frost

The first frost of the season is predicted for tonight, the sky is is velvety expanse dotted with stars, and a crescent moon, there isn't even a whisper of wind. I am watching for a shooting star, so far I haven't seen one. The air is distinctly chilly, and is scented with the crispness of that chill.

I spent my time in the garden today, pulling out the tomato stakes and storing them away for next season, the gathering up the remaining few good tomatoes, and putting them into the "tomato convoy", then finally pulling out the plants and putting them in a heap, they will be burned along with the other garden waste that might carry disease.

There remain only potatoes to dig, and a few broadbeans that I hope will dry on the trellis. Of course there was also some time to sit back and enjoy the changing leaves and aroma of woodsmoke, a close up view of a spiderweb, the nostalgic feelings are overcoming me as I think back to picking acorns and apples, hickory nuts and milkweed pods, for that long ago time, when the world was a very different place. And so it goes.

On the passing of Steve Jobs

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” ~ Steve Jobs

"invention knows no boundary"

"there are no old, bold mushroom hunters"

"There are old mushroom hunters
and there are bold mushroom hunters
but there are no old.bold mushroom hunters."

And you don't want to eat any of these, even though you might see a squirrel or a deer nibble on them, they are toxic to humankind.

Over time I have sampled a lot of wild mushrooms, from the tasty and delicate morrell to the "left in the corner to age sweatsox" puffball, the locally popular "pine mushroom" which is really the very tasty field mushroom, the stock from which the common found at the grocery store mushroom is derived.

I read somewhere that the rains from Hurricane Irene would make mushrooms more plentiful. Well they weren't just a kidding. there are mushrooms and varietal fungi everywhere, but i found these behind the tool shed. I was looking for a fairy ring, and there just wasn't one.

convoy in the snow

Yesterday, it snowed, and rained and it was cold and foggy, the tomato convoy, persevered through it all, but I didn't. I hid in the house where it was warm and cozy.

October

Thirty days had September. and most of them had rain.
Today was cold and windy, pelting rain and the occasional wet snowflake, there was the scent of wood and coal smoke in the air and the car was filled with the aroma of fresh picked apples, homemade oat bread, and newly dug potatoes.
Fall

,with it vibrant colors shrouded in misty rain, the mysterious transition begins.
I go vacant before the splendor of fall leaves and the crystal clarity of the night sky, the magical October moon and of course there is Halloween, Samhain.