October 31: I am called pumpkins

Theme in Yellow
~ Carl Sandburg

I spot the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o'-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.



Jack-o-lantern pumpkins, by the way, make a perfectly fine pie or soup. I think it's a shame so many of them get thrown away after they serve their duties as decorations. The processing takes a big knife and a little work, but that's the way when you're using fresh food! It's a good feeling, though.

November 1: In-between times

Happy November!

With Samhain yesterday, we're midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. Here, it feels like autumn is finally really beginning. It's partly that we've had a frost, and that the leaves are starting to fall, giving hints of compelling changes to the landscape. But it's more this sense of calm, especially in the afternoon and evening, and the color of the light. The sun is noticeably diffuse, not beating down, just being there. At the farm, it's peaceful, almost sad; the wind rustles the brittle leaves in the trees, the low melodic clang of windchimes rings, and one cow is lowing up on a hill to the west. It's like the world is stopping to gaze at everything she worked so hard to make through the summer, getting ready for a rest. The color is gold.