Autumn Rituals

 

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               Sometime between Friday and Sunday, the season shifted. On Friday, walking home, I was thinking about socks—in a future tense sort of way. Someday, I would need socks again.  This morning, I was wearing socks. The rains had come blowing in--downpours in the night—and the temperature dropped.  We have moved into autumn behaviors.

1.       We have a fire in the fireplace.

2.       I turned on the chili pepper lights in the kitchen.

3.       Laundry is hanging on a rack in the living room.

4.       There are squashes and onions in the larder, potatoes under the stairs, cider in the fridge.

5.       The windows are closed.

6.       The cat did not go out last night, by her own choice.

7.       The chickens are living on a garden bed.

8.       There are no zucchini in the house, although there may still be a few in the garden.

9.       Socks. Big woolly sweater.

10.   Damp raincoats hang in the back hall.

11.   Piles of books, the New York Times, magazines scattered on the couch for Sunday reading.

12.   Lentil soup bubbles in the crockpot.

This winter, we fear, will be more challenging than others, but we are Hardy Folk, knowing how to both snug down for the afternoon and embrace the wild winds and rain on a morning walk.