Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Thanksgiving Moon<\/p>\n
Waiting now on the soil to freeze so I can lay down mulch. \u00a0One of the odder parts of gardening, putting the blanket on after the bed goes cold. \u00a0Planting garlic in September is another oddity. \u00a0Both make sense, but they are counter-intuitive. \u00a0Mulch over bulbs, especially newly planted bulbs, guards against frost-heaves in the spring, displacing bulbs, throwing them closer to the surface than desired. \u00a0Garlic, like tulips and crocus and daffodils, needs a cold winter to prepare itself for the spring. \u00a0They’re both fall planting.<\/p>\n
(Anatomy_of_a_Frost_Heave)<\/p>\n
Getting the mail from our mailbox out on the road requires dressing up. \u00a0I put on my down coat for the journey a moment ago. \u00a0Watch cap and gloves, too. \u00a0My jeans let the cold right through to my legs, but legs are hardier than feet and torso and hands, more willing to put up with the chill. \u00a0The top of this head, long a follicle desert, also demands covering. In the summer sun and the winter cold. \u00a0Burning or freezing.<\/p>\n
We look outside at the garden, the orchard, the bees. \u00a0There is some winter interest there, grasses and flower stems, the bare trees and in our particular case the evergreen cedars, our planted white pines and norway pines, colorado blue spruce, but we admire them from within, no longer carried out among them with trowels and spades. \u00a0Our work out there is, for the most part, finished until April.<\/p>\n
The turn of work goes inward, work we can do at home. \u00a0Kate will sew, do needlepoint, quilt. \u00a0We both will read and watch movies. \u00a0I’ll write, translate, take a class or two.<\/p>\n
Waiting also for snow and the transformation of our world. \u00a0It’s one of the delights of living here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Thanksgiving Moon Waiting now on the soil to freeze so I can lay down mulch. \u00a0One of the odder parts of gardening, putting the blanket on after the bed goes cold. \u00a0Planting garlic … Continue reading The Seasonal Turn<\/span>