Isabel Designs

“I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.” Nathaniel Hawthorne

“I love the changes that fall brings.” I never thought I’d ever say those words, especially on the day that we rolled the clocks back, but this year the season has left me feeling oddly hopeful. I spent the day raking leaves, folding up lawn chairs, and winterizing the yard. Perhaps all that fresh air and physical labour went to my head. Maybe the celebratory Octoberfest when the job was done skewed my judgement. Or it just may have been the honking of Canadian geese over head that reminded me there is a path and plan for everything. At the moment, I’m content to blend into this season rather than fade out of it.

“In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowing glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November.” Rose G. KIngsley

As the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers. As I watch the day unfold with sunshine, I am trying to put the list of things I need to do in some type of priority. Of course there are the regulars that always seem to eat up my weekend like house cleaning, groceries and errands. But on this day, I hear the song of my perennials singing, “Ready or not, here I come!” The daffodils are blooming, the bleeding hearts are budding, and there is a new little friend whose name I can’t remember, a gift from my sister in law, blossoming little white flowers above spotted green leaves. The leaves that I neglected to rake last fall are now compacted on the lawn, and the stalks I left for ‘winter interest’ are now just looking dead as the new green plants are emerging underneath them. It sounds like a lot of work, and there is a part of me that wishes I could wrinkle my nose like Samantha from Bewitched and make my gardens perfect. However, once I’m out there, the feeling of nurturing my plants always brings on a sense of peace and satisfaction. So, I think my regular chores can wait. Gathering up my wheelbarrow, shovel, gloves and rake will inevitably bring about more satisfaction as I focus on my connection with Mother Earth.