fall

Spring follows winter and we are glad.

We look forward to summer and warm days and shorts and tee shirts. But summer is not permanent. I lived in Texas for a few years. Not really cold climate, though a storm on a given day could seem like it was pretty cold. There was no frost in late September or early October, but the trees would turn color, all about the same time, and leaves would fall, even without a lot of outward signals of fall much less winter.

But it was and is inevitable. Fall and winter follow summer. Gardeners are always looking toward the next season. Life and seasons, go on. We like to think (I do not know if it is true or not) that the First Americans used snow as an indicator of years. “It was 20 snows back, when. . .”

A gardner or a farmer has a finite number of “snows” to ply his hobby or trade. If one starts early and has a long run, one might get in 50 gardens or crops. That seems like a big number when you are young, but now it does not look so long.

So the seasons roll on.

We had more tomatoes than we could eat, so we gave lots of them away, then suddenly the bumper crop was gone and there are fewer ripe and ripening fruits.

In a way I am looking forward to winter. More time in my studio, more time in my shop. But it is one more “snow” or “garden” or notch on my life stick.