Autumn Evenings

The temperature is dropping into the low 50s, maybe even 49F, tonight.  Daytime temps will be in the mid-70s for a week; I imagine we've had our AC on for the last time this year (and really, it was probably only on about 3 weeks this summer, off and on.)  I love this weather.  And it just gets better.  I've made pots of soup, even baked bread.  I've watched a few early leaves fall and I have two pots of mums on the front walk.  As a child I liked September because school started, but there was no fall foliage or chilly weather in Texas.  Now, it's one of my favorite seasons.  And it's just getting started.

Spring

Looking for poems for our Daisies to recite during a field trip to the local senior center (where they'll distribute these crafts), I came across several gems.  Not as thought-provoking as Toni Bernhard's spring quotations, they cheerfully evoke the season, which has been bumping us around from chill to rain to warmth and back again:


by Anonymous

I'm glad the sky is painted blue,

and the earth is painted green,

with such a lot of nice fresh air,

all sandwiched in between.

Mud by Polly Chase Boyden

Mud is very nice to feel

All squishy-squash between the toes!

I'd rather wade in wiggly mud

Than smell a yellow rose.

Nobody else but the rosebush knows

How nice mud feels

Between the toes.

Rain Clouds by Elizabeth-Ellen Long

Along a road

Not built by man

There winds a silent

Caravan

Of camel-clouds

Whose humped gray backs

Are weighted down

With heavy packs

Of long-awaited,

Precious rain

To make the old earth

Young again,

And dress her shabby

Fields and hills

In green grass silk

With wild-flower frills.

Good-by My Winter Suit by N.M. Bodecker

Good-by my winter suit,

good-by my hat and boot,

good-by my ear-protecting muffs

and storms that hail and hoot.

Farewell to snow and sleet,

farewell to Cream of Wheat,

farewell to ice-removing salt

and slush around my feet

Right on! to daffodils,

right on! to whippoorwills, 

right on! to chirp-producing eggs

and baby birds and quills.

The day is on the wing,

the kite is on the string,

the sun is where the sun should be--

it's spring all right! It's spring!

Spring by Karla Kuskin

I'm shouting

I'm singing

I'm swinging through trees

I'm winging sky-high

With the buzzing black bees.

I'm the sun

I'm the moon

I'm the dew on the rose.

I'm a rabbit

Whose habit

Is twitching his nose.

I'm lively

I'm lovely

I'm kicking my heels

I'm crying "Come dance"

to the freshwater eels

I'm racing through meadows

Without any coat

I'm a gamboling lamb

I'm a light leaping goat

I'm a bud

I'm a bloom

I'm a dove on the wing.

I'm running on rooftops

And welcoming spring!

The Groundhog Says...

WINTER!
That would be a nice change.

The Heat is On

The temperature has dropped to 39F, with the minute but forecast possibility of some non-sticking snow showers on Saturday.  Which means we've turned the heat on, after quickly clearing the radiators of toys and costumes and pillows.  The comforting familiarity of water wooshing through the rattling radiators has just begun; the once-a-year odor of burning dust will soon begin.  I love this warm sweater, wool socks, yarn craft, hot chocolate, big pot of soup, extra blanket time of year.

Signs of the Season

Crunchy, (somewhat) colorful leaves.
Visible breaths in the morning cool.
More-solid-than-usual coconut oil that is hardening as it cools down outside.
"Do you have your jacket?" added to my morning litany.
Cleaning off the radiators for when we turn on the heat (soon).

"Tis the Season

This evening after dinner, as the holiday weekend wound to a close, we told the kiddos that the Easter stuff would be going away tonight and we wouldn't see it until next year. We were totally prepared for disappointment, begging, and even tears, but not this, from DD:

"So, what season is it next?"

DS answered her, "It's summer."