November

November, the essence of Autumn insists a change beckoning us inside the same way that Springs calls us to come outdoors.  The Harvest is in and the bounty stored.  This month often shows a variety of conditions like no other.  The clear starry nights, crimson sunsets, ominous cloud-scapes and grey foggy mornings can happen with only days that seem like moments in between. This is the time of year that a tree loaded with leaves of every color will show barest branches by month's end.

Laura's Sunflowers

Until the last grapes are cut from the vine and the last  nuts are swept off the orchard floor is the Harvest Season allowed to wind down. And then, the quiet... the waiting... as the Season will shift toward a peaceful calm. Contentment to be inside, behind closed doors replaces hours of scurrying about form place to place.  The wind whips through the air and the rain beats against the window.  Was it just last week that you stood alone in the orchard and could actually hear the falling leaves softly hitting the ground?

Donna's Peppers

Antoinette Celle Vineyards

This shift happens each year in November when it's time to gather in, slow down and get out fuzzy socks and warm blankets.  Books and knitting needles will sitting by the favorite chair and cookbooks are strewn about as the planning for Holiday baking has begun.  Soup is simmering on the stove in a huge pot permeating the air with smells of steamy vegetables somehow reconciling the fact of short days and dark evenings.

Year's end is so close that reality insists attention to the details that come soon enough... oh so soon enough... but for now - it is November. Beautiful, Glorious November.