So another summer is gone. Ok so summer technically isnt over yet but well, school is starting up today and life's pace seems to be stepping up and well it just seems like fall is starting. Where I come from harvesting is done (for the most part) and everyone is finishing up the summer stuff of winterizing the harvest equipment and women are "putting up" the fruits and vegetables. It is a busy time of year for us. We prepare for winter. It is also the last of the lazy days of summer. there is a coolness to the air during the days and the evenings are getting brisk. The leaves are turning colors and the earth which was coated in green is now shedding that coat and dawning colors of yellow, orange, browns and reds. It is a magnificent time of year even here where the colors dont change so much. The apples are all ripe and falling from the trees and the very last and best of the berries are plump and waiting to be picked either by human hands or bird friends.
When I was growing up I hated this time of year. The fields were empty now and brown. Most of them had been plowed under so you could not even ride your bikes back in them. The best part of harvest season was exploring fields that had been harvested and had dirt trails going through them to areas we very seldom ever saw. When you live in wheat fields (miles and miles) you pray for things that might be different or fun to explore, A copse of trees or a draw with water in it (Over here they call it a wetland). These places held a little mystery and if they didnt we could create our own and make them the fantasy place we longed to be in. But this time of year was met with plows that made furrows in the ground that you could not ride bikes on and they made the landscape shades of brown instead of gold. And if you wanted to go exploring you had to wait till the weekend now since school took up most of your day. 
Spangle was a small community out in the middle of Palouse country. We had 210 people in our town and my school had 91 kids in our high school with four grades going there. I had 15 kids in my class from the time I was in first grade to when I started high school in 9th grade. I thought I had really gone to a new level when our class suddenly had 25 kids in it. Our high school actually combined two districts to create liberty high school. We got on the bus to go to school at 7:00AM and got to school around 8:00AM School ended at 3:00PM and we generally were home by 4:30PM. It made for a very long day.
It is this time of year that takes me back to fall memories and makes me wax nostalgic. It is just the transition between the seasons. Why is it that this transition is not so easy or gradual? It is jarring and rude rather like waking up to an alarm first thing in the morning.
To all of you who are starting up school today... Lucky you! A time to learn and expand your vision.. What more delight in life can there be? To those going back to work.. Happy day.. It is good that life moves on and that we have times we can enjoy but if life were slow and lazy all the time.. would we enjoy it quite as much as when we know the difference? Happy day!
Autumn begins on Whidbey Island
No comments:
Post a Comment