“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
______________________________________________________________________
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.