We’ve reached the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” that John Keats spoke of – Autumn.
Back in May, my instincts turned from my screen to the outdoors like a sunflower faces the warmth. They’ve lately been rotating a bit at a time from the gardening season toward the more thoughtful time of year. There are seasons of the body and seasons of the mind.
This summer has been one of creation for me. Painting, with brush and with shovel, the landscape within my home and especially outside of it. It’s been a time of color, expression, and movement. A joyful, embodied season.
Of course, I have continued to read, and to socialize with other readers on BlueSky. I also started reading advance reader copies (ARCs) through NetGalley. While I don’t plan to write individually about the books I consumed during my time away, I will likely post a list of those titles. I count approximately thirty-five.
Yesterday, our moon, sun, and stars tipped us just over the pasture fence into Fall. The weather has been edging that direction for weeks and while there is still summer outside my window as I write, there are also lower skies. A creeping yellow-brown is replacing the vibrant greens of growing. We are moving gently away from the season when “the land would shout with grass.” (Steinbeck)
My thoughts have softly followed course, returning to writing. The act of reading has been slowing down and leaning toward savoring, noticing, and note-taking as my instincts prepare to step away from that fence toward what we know is coming. Something like what Keats said so much more beautifully:
“Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by the cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.”
That’s how I feel about this in-between time. Watching the fat bumblebees still napping in my hollyhocks. The continued flowering of a cacophony of plants even though their leaves are moving from green to brown. Foggy mornings. Late mornings. The “last oozings, hours by hours.”
If you are seeing this – I hope you’ve been reading. That you’ve had a beautiful season. I hope you’ll join me in greeting with gentle joy the pleasures in senescence. Meeting entropy with love and loyalty…
and books.
-HR
Quotes came from the following works. Not affiliate links.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck – My favorite and most revisited book.
Poem “To Autumn” from “1819 Odes” by John Keats
Photographs are from my garden and taken by me.
Hard Return 