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November Musings By Lynne Bittner
There is no clear line of delineation for the onset of Winter. It is more like a silent vanishing - a slow retreat of sounds, color and daylight. We spin through space with no say so of where we are bound, knowing only that we will return again to Spring when the time comes. I have no choice except to surrender to the inevitable now that the brief flare of October is spent. The sassafras tree along side our driveway had a splendid display this year. The show began in late September with it’s oddly shaped leaves turning several shades of crimson, orange and yellow... sort of like a one man band for autumn. Still, a few hardy wildflowers can still be found in bloom in the meadows and along the roadsides having defied the blasts from the frosts: asters, and the occasional soapwort, chickory, Queen Anne’s lace, campion and golden rod. They will remain a source of nectar for foraging insects, until it’s too cold for them to fly. Last week when on my way out to work in the studio and passing by my zinnia bed, I bent over to clear away some debris, and before I knew it, I was changing into my gardening pants. I pulled out the dried out stalks, and hauled them all over to my garden waste pile at the woodlands' edge (which now by the way is burgeoning with bishop's weed). Those cactus flowering zinnias were glorious this year, and then as they always do late in August, began to succumb to powdery mildew and black spot. The night before I had picked the last remaining flowers atop the 3’ lifeless stalks as there was a frost warning for that evening, and covered up my nasturtiums and marigolds with a bed sheet for the night and wished them luck. It is time to tend a different kind of garden now, as we are escorted by the Pleiades through the long Winter nights ahead, and I look forward to watching crimson November sunsets shining through glittery forests of ferns on my windowpanes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sassafras in Fall | Photos ©2005 R. Bittner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Lichen among the leaf litter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mushrooms in pine needles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Canada Geese on thier way south | ||
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