November Begins

         

On Halloween night, Mark and I opened the doors to the dark time of the year, but we placed our guardians around the place for protection. We started with serious local food for dinner: a quiche with leeks and apples from our yard, salad from Sunbow, and a peach pie to finish up the peaches Mac delivered to our doorstep back in August. While everything baked, we carved our pumpkins—elaborate faces for the door guardians and flowers and swirls for the garden spirits. I lit a fire using the branches of a tree we had taken down in September; it was the first fire on the hearth for this winter. After dinner, I shuffled the tarot deck to pull, yet again, the Five of Wands, which encourages me to focus my energies.

Since then, we have been bringing in food for the winter—dried beans, onions, wheat and flour—to add to the stock already in the basement. I grew enough squash to carry us through the winter; there are canned tomatoes, jams, and cider on our basement shelves and potatoes under the stairs. Today, we put the woodpiles into order, finally sorting the wood into fireplace and stove, small, medium and large pieces with the oldest, driest wood on top. Slowly, we are settling in for the winter, bringing our basement life, at least, into order.