A poem about autumn called “The Mist and All” begins, “I like the fall, The mist and all.”  That is exactly how the weather has been lately.  After an extremely dry and hot summer, I am so excited that fall is almost here.  Rain started falling last week.  It was not hard and was not accompanied by thunder and lightning, but it was continuous.  I told my father, “It is a perfect Scottish day!”

Now I know why Scotland is so green.  The constant drizzle has really spruced things up around here.  Pastures are green, trees have perked up, even my vegetable garden is experiencing rebirth.  My tomato plants from this summer are now full of green tomatoes.  I just wonder if they will have time to ripen before a frost comes.  If nothing else, we will just have fried green tomatoes.  Squash plants are coming up again.  My cucumber vine once limp with neglect and tired of producing has come back and is making more cucumbers.  It is amazing what a little rain will do!

September 23rd, my birthday, is the first official day of autumn.  Spring and Autumn are my absolute favorite times of the year.  I am now putting in my fall garden around the cucumber, new squash, and tomato plants of last season.  In Texas, fall is a time when families can go camping comfortably, you mow your yard for the last time of the year, and you really enjoy being outdoors.  Hunting season will begin shortly, and our house will enjoy the fruits of that labor as well.  Since we try to eat as seasonally as possible, my family and I are looking forward to cabbage and squash.  We love to eat pumpkin as well.  The sharpness of the radish is delicious in a fresh green salad.

Thanksgiving is also a part of this season.  Already I am trying to ignore that Christmas follows shortly thereafter.  I have always enjoyed Thanksgiving; although, I feel it is being overlooked more and more as Christmas almost completely overshadows it.  But what a wonderful holiday.  A truly American holiday celebrating our gratitude and thanks to God for providing for us the past year and asking for His blessings in the next.  It has all the beauty of the season.  The autumnal colors brighten up your home with reds, browns, and oranges.

I am looking forward to fall!  I am enjoying the little cool spell that we are enjoying today.  What a great time to be outside!  A perfect time to have one’s hands in the damp soil working the earth and planting seeds.  I hope that everyone will take some time this fall to get outside and enjoy this wonderful time of year.  It is almost officially here!

I want to leave you with a poem about September.

September

A road like brown ribbon,
A sky that is blue,
A forest of green
With that sky peeping through.

Asters, deep purple,
A grasshopper’s call,
Today it is summer,
Tomorrow is fall.

~by Edwina Fallis

Tags: autumn, cold fronts, fall, Gardening, rain, September 23, Thanksgiving

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 6:21 am and is filed under Homesteading, Texas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.