Sep 9, 20223 min read

Autumn is Stirring

A transition of seasons is upon us. It has become darker outdoors and I have turned on the light in my greenhouse and set the timer. Having a home surrounded by tall trees means the diminishing light is more noticeable where I live than elsewhere, but it is a fact that none can miss. The sun is still bright during the day, but there is a sudden nip to the air. We have had days of strong winds which have blown through the garden, ripping apart tall cosmos and knocking apples out of the trees. The sedum 'autumn joy' is in its element and the heirloom chrysanthemums are beginning to bloom. Maple leaves that I will collect for garden mulch are drifting down from the trees and scattering themselves across the ground. It is dark when we go to bed and still dark when I wake up early to prepare for the day. In a family with children, one of the most noticeable markers is that the kids have begun school and the yellow bus can be seen driving around town, picking up and dropping off the school children.

There are new feelings stirring inside, as well. After many months of forever putting out energy and endless doing, I am experiencing a desire to nourish myself, to add back to my reserves. I am feeling inklings that taking a course would be great, to enrich what is already there. I know I could use some days of still moments. No doubt that if I take this time, I will feel my inner fire burn bright again, igniting all those familiar yearnings that are with me most all of the time, urging me to make soap and skin balm and to create flower arrangements and fantastical everlasting wreaths; pressing me into the garden and greenhouse, in time to start cuttings and plant seeds for the flowers of 2023.

The need for rest noted, the truth is I need to get to my soap making and preparing jars of skin balm. You have all been so supportive of me this summer and the result is I am low on both. I am entirely out of 'many plants' balm, but the new oils are almost at their perfect moment. Early in the summer I began harvesting special weeds and blooms from my garden and elsewhere, and the filled jars have been sitting on the shelf, biding time and infusing the oils with their goodness ever since. Next week should find me blending all of these together, making this year's batch to share all through the coming seasons. I can hardly believe it has been an entire year since I last made this skin balm. Still, how different this time last September was. The border to my community was still closed, and all around was the silence of a very peaceful place. This year there will be far more bustle to add to the loud roar of fall winds. It is the liveliness of the coming holiday season to which I am looking forward. Last year we worked together to create a festive feeling all around us, in spite of fear and isolation and many being separated from loved ones. This year, the fun should come with much more ease.

While it is still warm and mostly pleasant outdoors, I am designing now to give you everlasting blooms with which to fill your homes through the darker days ahead (and beyond, right back again into the light...these flowers are called everlasting for a reason!) Colourful dried flowers are special and sustainable ways to bring the joys of summer into our lives and to provide the type of energy boost that only nature can give during the winter. In the past, in the days before I began to bring dried blooms and the windfall of evergreen boughs into my home, I felt much sleepier and far more in need of extra caffeine. I could barely stay awake. I recall putting cocoa in the oatmeal, in the granola, in the muffins, anywhere I could(!), trying desperately to feel life again. Since then I have found that if I have the energy, vibrancy and charms of everlasting flowers and evergreens around me indoors, I no longer feel the winter slump the way the way I did then. When I read it here, it sounds like a fib, but truly this is real. A self discovery for which I am grateful!