Autumn
I love seasons, any and all. The energies that they bring to my life are so rich and varied. For me, each season has its own special feels, activites, foods and themes of thought and emotion. I know that the seasons are felt and experienced in as many unique ways as there are people who experience them. I would love to hear how each of you thinks and feels about Autumn. To get you started, I will tell you what Autumn is to me.
Autumn is a gathering in. Herbs and some summer flowers come into the house in pots. Root vegetables are gathered and stored for winter. Onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, squash and pumpkin all make their way from my garden to the house. Fall flavour bursts into our kitchen: BLTs made with garden tomatoes, pan fried potatoes and onions, an acorn squash soup and always a couple of pumpkin pies! Baking, almost exclusively sweetened with honey, warms the kitchen again on a chilly day and a cup of tea with honey is a good reason for an afternoon rest.
Autumn is a gathering in. Herbs and some summer flowers come into the house in pots. Root vegetables are gathered and stored for winter. Onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, squash and pumpkin all make their way from my garden to the house. Fall flavour bursts into our kitchen: BLTs made with garden tomatoes, pan fried potatoes and onions, an acorn squash soup and always a couple of pumpkin pies! Baking, almost exclusively sweetened with honey, warms the kitchen again on a chilly day and a cup of tea with honey is a good reason for an afternoon rest.
Autumn is breath-taking beauty. The prairie changes: from ripened crops, to combines in fields; with dust-filled air, turning the sun in the mornings and the rising moon in the evenings to an intense red, and then it changes again to patches of stubble laying in wait for winter. Deciduous trees and shrubs change, each in their own time and colour scheme. Larch trees create stunning golden towers and, a little later, spectacular golden trails and roads. All this while the evergreens hold their steady backdrop of green. On calm days, still waters reflect this beauty allowing me to paddle my kayak through the clouds and the colourful hillsides!
Autumn is breath-taking beauty. The prairie changes: from ripened crops, to combines in fields; with dust-filled air, turning the sun in the mornings and the rising moon in the evenings to an intense red, and then it changes again to patches of stubble laying in wait for winter. Deciduous trees and shrubs change, each in their own time and colour scheme. Larch trees create stunning golden towers and, a little later, spectacular golden trails and roads. All this while the evergreens hold their steady backdrop of green. On calm days, still waters reflect this beauty allowing me to paddle my kayak through the clouds and the colourful hillsides!
Autumn is a time of reflection: a winding down and taking stock. Days are growing shorter, the intense pressure of being part of a honey farm in honey season (that’s a fifth season that lays over top of Spring and Summer) is easing off and foreign workers are returning home. I am grateful for all the people who have made this year’s Wendell Honey crop happen: for the farmers who grow the crops that our bees forage, for the management team who are dedicated to the success of Wendell Honey and who truly are passionate about bees and honey, for all Wendell Honey employees who help to get the honey in the barrel and the jar, and especially to those TFWs who, each year, leave their home countries and families to work with us and to provide a little more stability and opportunity for their families. I am continually and constantly grateful for the opportunity that I have to live in the country on the Canadian prairies.
Autumn is giving thanks and feeling grateful.
Share this story