Halloween 2011

The garden has been put to bed. The trees are turning colors. The lawn has disappeared under a carpet of leaves. It is beautiful here.

Most of the trees are yellow. But a few, hidden here and there in the woods, are spectacularly red.

It is Halloween. I have asked a few neighbors and have been told not to expect any trick-or-treaters. It's too bad because I would love to decorate the walkway with pumpkins and corn stalks and lights.

It is getting quieter here. My sister and her husband have gone home to Florida. The garden, as I said, is put to bed, my husband is considering going back to work. What will I do all winter? Could I load the wood stove all by myself if I had to? What if I get snowed in? As I ponder these questions, fall deepens its hold on Michigan and the skies are turning the familiar November-gray that lasts all month. I am already thinking about spring and wishing I had planted more bulbs in my fledgling flower garden. The ones I did plant, white daffodils and deep red tulips in the main garden, small blue scilla and miniature yellow daffodils in the shade garden, are peacefully slumbering under dark, cool soil. I also got rid of the rocks and removed the plastic tarp from a small bed by the barn. I filled it up with leaves and manure, underlaid with newspaper and hope it will be rotted down in the spring. I have visions of the "Spring Celebrities" hollyhocks growing there next summer. A red barn should have hollyhocks next to it.