Fall has definitely arrived in Walla Walla. Though we still have sunny days and highs in the 80s dotted throughout the long-term forecast, those highs quickly transition to lows in the 50s and even the 40s the moments the lights go out. I mean when the sun goes down.
It’s getting dark really early now!
I know, 9, at the rate of three-plus minutes a day! I wouldn’t mind the cooling temperatures so much, but shorter daylight hours, well, they cramp my style. Take gardening, for instance. An hour or two of morning weeding, harvesting and mowing was easily done in July and August, but now. . .
Please try to take a more optimistic tone, you are setting a bad example for 9. You mustn’t forget Halloween will be here soon.
And Trick-or-Treating!
A childish pursuit. I plan to test an ancient superstition: If you look in a mirror by candlelight on Halloween at midnight while combing your hair, you’ll see the face of the person you’re going to marry.
All three of them?
We have three husbands?
Yes, but not at the same time.
Moving right along, I was thinking of what autumn’s shorter days mean to my friends in the Greek pantheon, particularly to Demeter, the Goddess of Harvest and Agriculture. It’s a busy time of year for her, what with harvest, but also leads into a long, depressing series of months when her daughter, Persephone, has to return to the Underworld and Hades, her husband, after the spring and summer growing cycles.
Demeter: Here’s the lowdown. . .
Ew! I hate being underground. Why does she have to do that?
The official story is she ate six pomegranate seeds when she was first taken to the Underworld. Apparently if you are a living being you can’t eat anything down there without it entrapping you. Six seeds translated to six months per year in the Underworld, alternating with six months aboveground. It is also the official story that her mother, Demeter, would weep when Persephone returned to the Underworld, which is why we have more precipitation in the winter.
Oh, now I remember! Mrs. Mitton taught us about that in third grade.
And that lesson is still with me today. But it was only this fall that I made the connection between myself and Demeter. If I consider my garden to be my child- –
Don’t mind us, just go ahead and plunge into whimsy.
Thank you, Lily. If I consider my garden to be my child, fall brings not only the culmination of my offspring’s achievements, but also signals its departure for the colder, darker months.
So yeah, I’m bummed.
However, there are a few consolations.
For one, there are houseplants. They are presently corralled in the south-facing dining area and seem quite happy there. The violets are in bloom, and the dracaena (aka dragon tree) is finally sending out another branch:
Demeter would likely approve of my year-round blooming violets. . .
. . .and she would definitely approve of the new growth on the dracaena!
Joining a small flowering cactus and another, newer violet on the kitchen windowsill are some newcomers-an indoor herb garden of basil, cilantro and thyme:
Overtime for Demeter: starting an indoor winter herb garden.
So I’m coming around to the idea that it could be worse!
And also realizing- -both literally and metaphorically- -life doesn’t grind to a halt when it gets dark.
