Samhain Fallowturn Moon
All the leeks have left the earth. I pulled them out, chopped off the roots and the upper green leaves, stripped off the outer layers of soil cover and put them in the bucket that held the pro-sweet syrup I fed the bees in September. The carrots, too, have left the earth. Fat, long, orange, soil clinging to the delicate roots sent out for more nutrients, they come up with the leaves intact. Soup ingredients and ingredients for leek au gratin that I plan to make tomorrow.
After this final harvest, summer’s end at last for produce, I took my Gransfors-Bruks felling axe over to the elm tree, a small one. It had begun to impinge on the gardens sunlight and Kate wanted it gone. Warming up to my aerobics for the non-resistance days, I began to chop.
This took 20-25 minutes and saw me chopping, resting, breathing hard, chopping again, resting again. At one point it seemed the tree would remain upright with only a small layer of wood holding it up. Then, as trees do, it began to lean gracefully and fell slowly down, right where I had planned. The ax work is intense.