One of my favourite poems, which I memorized in elementary school in the 1950s is William Wilfred Campbell's Indian Summer. The last warm days in October before winter begins to set in.
Along the line of smoky hillsThe crimson forest stands,And all the day the blue-jay callsThroughout the autumn lands.
Now by the brook the maple leansWith all his glory spread,And all the sumachs on the hillsHave turned their green to red.
Now by great marshes wrapt in mist,Or past some river's mouth,Throughout the long, still autumn dayWild birds are flying south.
We are enjoying Indian Summer (Бабье лето Baba Leto in Russian) here in Zhovti Vody. We had a few days of 10C weather and one night of frost but now it is 20C in the daytime and 10C at night. The cats don't even come home at night.
Tanya has gone to Kyiv for three days to visit Masha as her roomies have gone to Turkey on holiday. It is a risk as Covid is running wild in Ukraine. Two days ago people were lined up here for vaccinations as Pfizer was finally readily available. Waiting for Pfizer may have been a mistake as we have 40 new cases per day and lost 8 people in the past two weeks.
Yard work is pretty much done. Tanya has continually clipped and dug in her flowers. We cleaned off the last of the garden, hauled the dead plants to our compost pile in the abandoned garden next to us, and spread well rotted manure over some of the garden. We will hire our neighbour to rototill it next week. He has a big front wheel drive garden tractor.
Our walnut trees yielded well again. We cannot give them away and have a tub left from last year, a big wire basket and large cardboard box from this year and left lots on the ground. We raked the leaves into a long row one day and burned them the next. Of course we had a very strong wind on the third day and the rest of the leaves fell so I will rake them before Tanya gets home. She will do the burning.
Lucky and I will go for a walk today. It is too nice to be inside.
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| Fall colours on our street |
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| Walnut leaves |
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| The long view of the walnut leaves |
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| Burning leaves. NW wind blew the smoke towards the pig fam 1 km away. Tanya said it was their turn |
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| We cleaned the driveway. The white sand is to refill Lucky's sandbox. He love to dig in it and hide his toys, then 'find' them. |
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| Yours truly in my 20 year old South African Stockman's hat. A gift from my friend Wayne at www.barakasheabutter.com |
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| Half of this year's crop of walnuts |
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| Our neighbour trimmed low branches off the walnut trees. |
Campbell; I will look him up. A wonderful poem. Finally a picture of you. Now I can put a face to the writings.
ReplyDeletebest to you
the Ol'Buzzard
It is a great poem and I suspect it would fit Maine too?
DeleteI remember when people used to burn their fall leaves here too, a million years ago when I was young!
ReplyDeleteWe live in the country more or less so we can burn leaves. People in town cannot.
DeleteI remember learning poetry by heart. Fragments at least of some of them are still with me decades later.
ReplyDeleteYou have been busy.
Loving the beautiful views you have shared.
I often look up the fragments I remember to refresh my memory of the poem. Glad you liked the pictures.
DeleteI don't recall any of my poems I learn in grade school. My mom start grade school in late 1920's and she still could resite them.
ReplyDeleteCovid number keep climbing in my area. Still low vaccine and still hardly anyone wears a mask.
Coffee is on and stay safe
Some people can remember poems and other people remember other things.
DeleteIdaho is a Red State so controlling Covid will take a long time.
This is a test comment to see if blogger will crash again
ReplyDeleteI chuckled at Tanya's comment about the pig farm. There's no odour quite like a pig farm - yikes! Your walnut crop looks yummy. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe don't get them too often but a strong SE wind, especially if they are emptying the lagoon is pretty bad. They are pretty good about it but shit happens. The modern hog barns I've been in are clean smelling inside but don't stand outside near the vent fans.
DeleteWalnut trees must grow on the Island? Ours are about 30 years old but have been yielding forever. And yes, they are delicious.
They're not native here, but they would definitely grow. A walnut tree is on our garden wish list. So many wonderful plant possibilities, so little budget...
DeleteI miss the smell of burning leaves.
ReplyDeleteYou'd have had lots to smell today as we burned a bunch more some of which were a bit damp
DeleteThere is nothing like the stench of pig shit on a crisp autumn morning, is there? I grew up on the north side of a little prairie town and there was a small pig farm only a block away and we could always tell when the pig barn needed cleaning out, LOL!
ReplyDeleteYour walnut crop looks wonderful! It's too bad there isn't a nearby farmer's market for you to sell them -- people would go crazy for them here in Saskatchewan!
Small pig farms are the worst. Big modern barns are better for the pigs and the employees. Just not the neighbours during lagoon cleaning times.
DeleteWe have two markets that run 6 days a week and one big one on Sunday from 7 to 12. There are babushkas on the street selling walnuts. You can't give them away.