Early September

     

The beginning of September is always a bit stressful. Summer is closing down while school is ramping up and it requires perfect timing to navigate the transition successfully. If I want to survive the first week of teaching, the week before I must complete more than three quarters of the following list: clean the house, find my school clothes and shoes, clean up the garden, prep food for breakfast, get ahead on the canning, finish the house projects and put everything away, finish the long novel I have been reading, do a big food shop, and make a serious food plan for the week. It helps to save time to stare into space and take a few long walks. This year, I made it through half of the list. Add a bunch of new tech at school and coming home to an exploded coffee pot (Mark forgot a part…) that sent coffee grounds and water everywhere, and I was DONE on Friday afternoon.

Sunday morning, we had a morning fire, a lovely fall ritual that evokes camping without leaving home. I start a fire in the chiminea we have set in the heart of the garden, using the fallen branches and fig cuttings. Then I leave Mark and the cat to keep an eye on it while I make breakfast. Fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, the last slices of apple bread, tea. We eat, read the New York Times, listen to the chickens rustle in the leaves under the hazelnut tree, and move the cat from lap to lap. OSU has not started yet, so the streets are quiet. The air is cool, the sun just rising into the space, the morning glories are blooming on the trellises. The world is peaceful.

Next year, I think, I’ll get it all done before school starts.