“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
The soft golden light of an early autumn morning is indeed a precious gift that I make the most of as I chase the sun throughout autumn. The sun fades as the season moves on, and before we know it there is more darkness than light here in the NE. So I savor this precious resource.
The sun has been such an important force in our lives. It warms us and our gardens coaxing seeds to sprout, it gives us essential Vitamin D, it 
nourishes our soul with warmth, and I know whenever I watch the sun rise each morning, I find my spirit soaring to meet it. I look forward to the colorful orb heralding in the new day.
So I am celebrating this change of the seasons with beautiful photos of autumnal light as I practice my autumn mantra of patience….letting nature give me what I need each day be it warm sunshine, cool breezes, fabulous colors and drenching rain.
“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly
changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.”
– Henry Beston
Many folks do not like to see autumn arrive as they know the darker days are ahead and winter is around the corner. But I chose to celebrate the positive aspects of the season even though it has a downside.
So let’s see how folks are celebrating autumn in the Northern Hemisphere….
Pam@Pam’s English Cottage Garden celebrates the end of summer and the coming of fall with an excursion to her local county fair in the Pocono area of Pennsylvania. And Pam isn’t just attending the fair, she is participating in a whole host of competitions ranging from veggies, flowers and herbs to several displays. Pam was rewarded with:
five first-place ribbons, six second-place ribbons, and several thirds and fourths!
I remember entering some beginning sewing and my yummy cookies in our local county fair when I was younger and winning some first and second place ribbons. Pam’s post brought back all those wonderful memories. Here we host the state fair, but I have not gotten up the courage to enter anything. Kudos to you Pam!!
Fall is a time to celebrate work in the garden of Holley@Roses and Other Gardening Joys. In her Texas garden the summer heat prevents much gardening. Here too Holley with heat, humidity and this year too much rain. I wish you wondrous joy as you work feverishly this fall in your garden.
Susie@Life.Change.Compost is exploring her life as we head into the “deepening season”. As she explains it:
Today—a late September day, I think: This could be a good day to look at this daughter I never had. If I am going to look a heartache in the face, a garden is a good place to do it. It is time to explore this ache into something I can finally use.
Her beautifully written post contemplating life without the daughter she never had and relating it to her Oregon garden spoke volumes to me. While mine was not a choice, I also do not have children. It is something I think about as I age and wonder what life might have been.
Loredana@Blogging Away has written a wonderful fall poem celebrating the shift and change of the season in the surrounds of her home in New York State.
I think Fall is a romantic season, perfect for falling in love … with love, with life, with hope, with trust, with faith … free falling.
I agree that fall is a romantic time of year…such beauty it just brings out love of nature in a romantic setting. I was married on a glorious fall day in October so i may be a bit biased!
The remains of the blooms are showcased by Beth @PlantPostings as she celebrates fall. As Beth says:
flower arranging is one of my favorite ways to celebrate new color palettes and seasonal transitions.
I love Beth’s arrangements. They capture the beauty of the season and her garden, in Wisconsin, as if you are seeing a snapshot of her garden in a vase.
Karin@Southern Meadows is looking forward to fall so she can celebrate by finally planting her new front landscape. Karin is a native plant enthusiast who has been redesigning gardens around her Georgia house and in the wooded areas surrounding her gorgeous home. I am planning some more redos of my gardens as I also add more natives. I look forward to seeing Karin’s wonderful plant purchases this fall.
KL@Beautiful Boonton and A Novice Gardener is celebrating fall with the incredible bounty in her NJ kitchen garden. Not only is she harvesting the wonderful fruits of autumn, she is preserving them for the winter:
As I am doing these, my respect and admiration for the past generations is getting renewed — harvesting, washing, cleaning, chopping, cutting, pickling, storing, freezing, cooking — none of these ‘-ing’ are easy jobs, especially without any of the modern amenities and facilities that we take for granted nowadays.
I hope to spend more time preserving more from my garden next year. It makes the season so much more enjoyable to have the harvest all winter.
I hope you enjoyed this retrospective of these wonderful blog posts. Feel free to click through and read the entire post…you won’t be disappointed.
As I leave you with a very lovely contemplative fall poem by my favorite poet, I hope you will join in the next Seasonal Celebration. It will start December 1st.
GATHERING LEAVES
Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?
Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.
Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who’s to say where
The harvest shall stop?”
Robert Frost
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Next up on the blog: Monday I will have a great Garden Book Review.
I hope you will join me for my posts once a month at Beautiful Wildlife Garden. See my most current post now.
Please remember, to comment click on the title of the post and the page will reload with the comments section.
Hi Donna,
I’ll be heralding the change of season by running for cover and trying to deny it’s happening. I want perpetual summer, without the high temperatures and humidity of being closer to the equator… I know I’m greedy 😉
With this wonderful summer so many don’t want to see it end. Here’s hoping yours continues as mine has not!
Thank you Donna, for writing such a fine summary of my piece. It remains one of my favorites as it has appeared over the years in various publications. I believe the garden is a place to work out all kinds of feelings, as it is a place of life, death, hope, redemption and the whole catastrophe! Mostly, the seasons of life and change……and that is what I just had to write about about in the deepening season. Ready or not…..here we go….many things going underground to gather strength for the next year.
Love, Susie
I tend to go underground as well to gain strength…I think it will be most important this fall and winter! Very happy you joined in Susie, and loved highlighting your wonderful post.
I love the Autumn light and glow in your photos, so beautiful! Wonderful post. And thank you for highlighting my Fall poem 🙂
My pleasure Loredana…one of the best parts of fall is that morning light!
I am in denial… not quite ready for summer to end. It’s has gone by so quickly. I need to slow down for just a week or so and enjoy THIS season before I’m ready to celebrate the next. Hey, I figure if it comes late it should surely leave late.
I agree but my summer came late and left early although today has been stunning. I mark summers end when the veg garden wanes which it has…but I will take each wonderful day. I actually am yearning to get back in to my garden to do some major work. Hoping to start this weekend if the rain holds off. Enjoy the slow stroll into to summer end Carolyn!
This is a beautiful post and yet again, I started one and did not finish..I am not back in my groove yet and somewhat sad that summer ended…. Michelle
You still have time Michelle. I can still add it. I know I am a bit sad as I missed summer in my garden this year due to work…but I will enjoy whatever days I can get. Maybe you can join in December 1st 🙂
A lovely post with all that golden light shining in your pictures. Thanks for all the links. Hope you get lots of autumn sunshine Donna!
Thanks Cathy…I am wishing for a splendid fall to savor the garden and finish work for this year. I just recieved my garlic and fall bulbs and can’t wait to plant them soon.
I love your meme because the seasons mean different things to me at different times. When I got to a certain age, I felt I had reached the autumn of my life, but as this autumn approaches, I am invigorated in the thought of getting outside and working. I almost feel like a spring chicken! 😉
Oh how wonderful Holley that you enjoy the meme. I agree the seasons mean me so many different things. I began to feel that autumn of my life feeling a few years ago, but I have been working to shake that as I know i have so much more time in the garden…just need a bit of rest this year.
Very nice post. Love the lovely light you have captured in your garden.
Thank you Karen…autumn seems to bring out the beauty of the golden morning sunlight
Beautiful sentiments, Donna! Your garden must be magical this time of year. Thanks for hosting, and … Happy Autumn!
It is wonderful Beth and it brings such joy….Happy Autumn to you too!!
I don’t think I do anything specific to celebrate fall besides my annual Happy Plant Hokey Pokey (my annual transplant-a-thon). But I really love watching the leaves change colors and eating cider donuts. LOVE the photo of the asters. :o)
I would say you have a wonderful ritual for autumn to enjoy it!! Those asters grow wild in the meadow and now they have volunteered all over the garden where I let them bloom.
Donna some lovely autumn photos of your garden, the autumnal equinox is a time to celebrate all the earth has given us, blessings, Frances
So true Frances…the garden in fall is so very rich in blessings and what a celebration it gives before retiring. Happy Autumn!!
What a nice post. I love your thoughts and points of view and all the other bloggers that you featured. We experience winter at it’s fullest up here and I feel the same way about enjoying the positive aspects of the season. It’s hard to accept fall knowing that winter is coming, but taking beautiful pictures can give us something to look back at and reflect.
Liz thanks for your wonderful perspective. Like you we are buried in winter and our spring and summer seem so short…it is important to celebrate each season.
Thank you so much, Donna, for highlighting my post! You summarized each posting beautifully. Your autumn garden is lovely. P. x
Pam I am glad you enjoyed the wrap up of your post!! I really loved it and was so happy to have you join in!
A lovely post indeed, so many beautiful photos! Autumn is one of my favorite seasons, next to Spring. I always enjoy the changing colors, the first nip in the air, the first smell of smoke from someone’s wood fire on an evening walk.
We were just smelling that smoky scent of fall the other day. brings back wonderful memories. So glad you love fall too Denise and thanks for visiting!!
It doesn’t feel like autumn here, the sunsets are similar to those of spring, yes the rain has brought some reflowering. The evenings are a little cooler and a thin duvet is on the bed, but often it is kicked off because it is too warm. The light in your images speaks of true beauty.
The fall morning light is amazing here Christina…we are to have another frost tonight too. I love the cool even cold nights for sleeping and brisk cooler days for garden work. We did have a few days in the 80s but that is fall here in NY.
I do like fall, the softer light and cooler temps. Also the color, the apple picking, and the apple pie and apple butter. Plus my birthday, which gives me a chance to ask for a home made apple pie (instead of cake).
Oh Jason apple butter was one of my Dad’s favorites to spread on toast so we were raised on it. I prefer pies as well but not many pies to make here in late May for my birthday….definitely apple pie instead of cake!!!
I see by your counter up top that there is 89 days until winter, 89 days to enjoy the golden glow of Autumn.
The changing of the leaves, the cooler breezes that soon turn chill.
It’s great to celebrate the season, and it would be a shame to live somewhere that it didn’t happen.
Jen
Jen I moved back to NY after my graduate studies in AZ in the early 80s because I missed the greenery and seasons. I bet though a few folks are distressed to see my new counter. Oh well like you I am celebrating the seasons instead of complaining about them.
The weather has finally cooled here , and today certainly felt like fall at 77º. The forecast is for 70’s and 80’s in the coming week, and I will be able to get the plants in the ground that have been waiting in their nursery cans. Fall is the best time for planting in my zone!
Dorothy planting in fall is best here too. I hope to find time soon to do just that. I have some new trees and bushes that have been waiting since spring.
I enjoyed the Robert Frost poem! There is so much I enjoy about autumn. Usually this is my biggest gardening season, but this year I am still recovering from surgery so I must be patient. My husband will help, but it is not the same as getting in there and doing the digging myself. So while I am off work, I am working on a book! Something i have wanted to do for a long time but somehow never had the time.
I understand how you feel Deborah but how exciting to be writing. I am hoping to also start on a book this winter as the garden season ends. I am excited to hear more about it!! Sending you healing good wishes to you 🙂
Another lovely post. Thank you for hosting this as I will get the opportunity to read all these posts. You write so nicely that you can easily become the next John Muir. Simply beautiful treat.
You are too kind my friend and what a wonderful author to compare me too. I will add your wonderful post to the wrap up here!!!
I love Fall. It is one of the prettiest seasons in the North. It just lasts too short like Spring in NF. We are the land of two seasons I think. The heat jumps right into the cold. This is why I like PA so much. Fall gives the most there.
It is a shame when the seasons are not cooperating. That happens here too but we seem to have a bit longer spring and autumn. Perfect autumn weather here right now. I would love to see a spring in PA.