Summer Is Over

So today is September, and summer - at least in my book - is officially over. The kids are back in school. The nights have already begun cooling. Leaves on some of the trees have already begun putting on their autumnal colors. I'm thinking about putting the storm windows back up, buying new storm doors for the front and the back. I need a snow blower - just can't face shovelling that big driveway again this year. But where the money will come for that, I do not know. Soon, the geese will be flying over head, the trees will rush headlong into their blazing year-end splendor, and I will find myself seeking opportunities to just sit outside and stare at it all in silent reverie. And I'm reminded of an old song by Charlie McGuire called "Fall Is Here":

When my cows no longer care to go
Out to their pasture far or near
But stand close in the last warm sun
Around the place, I'll know fall is here

And when the corn goes into dent
Across the fields like old men appear
And we pick it and store it all away
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

When the limbs of the apple and the pear
Lean down with their fruit so near
And my children go a'gathering
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

And when the hunters come from town
Seeking the pheasant and the deer
With their dogs in front to point the game
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

When the hay and straw are in the barn
Stacked to the roof, tier on tier
Smelling like a summer come and gone
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

Around the place, I'll know that fall is here
When the evenings come early and the mornings are clear
Over all of the fields that I worked this year
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

Autumn, as I have said before, puts me into a very retrospective mood. I think back over the past year and wonder where it all went to. So much accomplished this last year. So much that I didn't get done. Seems like only yesterday that I began building my grandson's tree house. Not that's all finished, and it's time for me to build the new raised beds so that Michelle can plant the garden as soon as the Spring thaw comes next year. I finished the manuscript for my novel, and it's now been sent out to various agents, hoping for a positive response from somebody. And now we begin to prepare for the nesting season, when we huddle indoors away from the cold, pull on sweaters, break out the quilts, enjoy hot cocoa and herbal tea and cider. Soon Halloween will fly by, then Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then another new year will be upon us. Such is the roll of the seasons and the passing of time. I hope, between now and then, to have my manuscript accepted. I also hope to write a new novel. Then there's the building blocks I wish to make for my grandson, and the shelves I want to build for my closet. I also want to build a cabinet for the bathroom, to go over the toilet. So much to do, and the days keep flying past. C'est la vie, say the French.