Sweet and Savory

On October 31 every year my least favorite celebration arrives and departs without a great deal of notice from me. My lack of appreciation for the day did not interfere with our kids being allowed to enjoy the fun side of it when they were young. I made their costumes. The very first being Helen at about 2 years of age; she was my puppet. I tied shiney red ribbons to her wrists and knees and then to a yardstick I carried. I painted bright red spots on her cheeks and nose and gave her a big smile. No mask, warmly dressed, and easy movement gave the costume practicality. We visited a few close friends and her Aunt Dorothy. Later costumes were gypsies, a Darth Vader of Star Wars for Marc (before stores offered light sabers etc. I crawled around on the floor for weeks designing the helmet out of black tag board. I muttered to myself for days to make a flashlight wrapped in velum to create a light saber). Marc told me one year that he never had a neat costume as a kid. I stared open mouthed and waited for his explanation. He shrugged and said, "You know, the cheap shiney ones they had in the store windows!"

The tradition carried on to our granddaughters. Bett's first year she was a peapod, and second year she, her mom and auntie were all Hersheys Kisses. The following year Bett was a pumpkin who did not like having her costume stuffed with newspaper to round it out. We have a very unhappy looking pumpkin glaring into the camera after she had just exclaimed, "Stop shoving paper in my butt!". She's growing up now and we continually remind her of that story. It could become a toast for her wedding dinner! By then, sister Belle was following in her footsteps as peapod, pumpkin, etc. Later years they were clowns, and princesses, etc.

Fun with family aside, I am glad when the day has come and gone. I live for autumn and start to decorate sometime in mid September. I have ceramic pumpkins, bowls shaped like leaves, candles with autumn motife and lots of red and gold leaf garlands to bring the harvest into the house. After hibernating from the heat and excessive light of summer, I enjoy the fall days when I can wear a sweater, have a fire in the chiminea, and sip tea while reading with the sun warming my back.

I scuffle through leaves in the gutters and relish their crackling and soft "shooshing" sound as I stir them up and kick them around. When the grandgirls were little, I would go to their house and rake a huge pile of leave and pick them up and toss them into the center of it. They would scrabble out, watch me rake and fluff the pile up again and then run to me to be tossed in once more. We all slept very well after those afternoons! I like sitting by the window using my spinning wheel and watching the leaves flutter and dance on the wind.

I change up the decorations little by little adding candles that have a tinge of frost to their appearance as fall snuggles closer to winter. When it is too cold or wet for me to play in the leaves, I like to have a fire in the fireplace, bagpipes playing on a CD, and either knit or spin as I choose. I have been known to become so relaxed spinning that I fall asleep and start to tip off my chair. You may wonder why I have bagpipes on the CD. First, I like bagpipes. Second, they are the correct rhythm for spinning. Third. I really like bagpipes!

There are melancholy times of autumn. It is the end of flowers for a time. My herb garden has a few sprigs of mint still fresh and hardy enough not to succumb to frost; the Basil, Sage, Savory, Oregano, Thyme, Lemon Balm and Cammomille are gone until next summer. Sometimes the blue of the sky and the sights and aromas of autumn bring a lump to my throat. Watching the birds leave, our neighbors packing their motor home for their extended stay away from winter, remind me that goodbyes are never easy.

Sometimes in the evening when there are piles of leaves in the yard, I know no one is watching and I slip out of doors to scuff through them. After checking carefully to make sure all the neighbor kids are in doing their homework, their parents are settled for the night, I exhibit just for me and the harvest moon a bit of my own interpretration of a fall "soft shoe". If it is a little misty out there so much the better. When the dance is done, my bones are chilled, and I feel just a little foolish even if refreshed, it is good to come in and sip some hot cider (and no there was no sipping of "other stuff" before I went out).

This time of year also sharpens my desire to sketch or draw. Ideas flow from my heart to my sketchpad from pen or pencil. Scarcrows smile back at me, pumpkins sit center stage with their minions of harvest gathered at their feet. Did you know cornshocks are difficult to draw? I know it and yet every fall I have to try. Grain sheaves are even harder because they take patience and I want to finish that and move on to the next apple or gourd or acorn. I love to draw acorns.

We are having a long, extra mild autumn this year. The color appeared and stayed longer than usual until a pair of windy days stripped the leaves away leaving lacework of bare branches against the sky. I nursed a seasonal cold and sat with red eyes, dripping nose, and fever chills by a sunny window and felt the warmth seep all through me. Even with my dwindling pile of tissues (and my increasing pile of used ones) I could be happy there.

It seems that autumn, only interrupted by that one day of discord, extends Thanksgiving from one day into sixty or more days. I am thankful for the color for God takes time to remind me His color box has so many more colors than mine. I am thankful for the cool because the summer heat that saps my energy has blown away with the last leaf. I am thankful that the bright sun of summer which causes such anxiety and agitation for me has waned into the soft slanted rays of sun bringing peace and calm to my heart. I am thankful for family, friends, our home, health, plenty. I am thankful I live in a country that, while it has its flaws, allows each of us to worship freely. I choose to worship the God who created all there is or ever will be. I look at autumn as if it is God's graphic example of what He meant when He asked us to keep the Sabbath. For a time He puts everything to sleep for a good rest, a time to recuperate and renew. Then in the spring He wakes everything for another season of productivity and energy. I am thankful He has given me the gift of expression. I hope tonight is a good night for at least one more dance with an autumn moon.