OCTOBER - THE YEAR'S LAST, LOVIEST SMILE

Blooming lilacs

October arrived with the dismal days of relentless rains. Prior to this wave of wet days, September was cheerfully dry and hot. So warm, it tricked the buds on our now leafless lilac bushes and allowed the buds to start flowering. Now, I’m worried whether flowers will appear on the bushes when spring rolls around in 2025.

October in the Central Pennsylvania mountains is known for its vibrant vista.  Maple and birch trees burst into a panorama of colors from ruby reds to carrot-colored oranges and golden yellows. Foggy mornings, falling leaves, hills of blooming goldenrod, and the rich brown of cattails in the swamps, also add to our dazzling landscape.

The scent of wood smoke riding on the breeze means the wood stoves and the fireplaces, indoors and outside, have been ignited to chase the chill away and welcome autumn. It’s also the month of pumpkin and apple picking—a time when our hungry thoughts turn to pies, pastries, applesauce, and cider, served hot or cold.  

This year, the osage orange tree my husband planted years ago beside our deck for shade provided crates of oranges that we hauled to the local dump. The oranges are useless since the taste is bitter. However, Native Americans used its stout wood for war clubs and tomahawk handles. Early settlers and pioneers found the wood useful for creating wagon wheel rims and hubs. The ridged and scaly bark of the trunk provided both a fiber for rope and tannin for making leather. Thorny osage orange trees are still planted by farmers for hedge rows to keep livestock corralled and out of their harvested fields.

Many folks refer to autumn and October as “the year's last, loveliest smile." I think of her as a warm transition period, warning me and my Northern friends that the breath of winter is nearby. Raking leaves, cleaning out flowerbeds, storing away outside furniture, covering delicate plants from hungry deer, and searching for snow shovels are all part of the merriment of Pennsylvania’s October. 

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HERE COMES SEPTEMBER!

Hello, September. This is one of our most energetic months as summer fades and autumn sneaks up on us. Our nights turn cooler and our days are crisp. We stash our summer clothes and dig out our fall garments—jeans, flannel shirts, sweaters, and light jackets. Best of all, we get to take a walk and look for trees and bushes with colorful leaves turning to scarlet, gold, or orange. If we’re lucky we’ll see geese winging their way south or see a squirrel scurry over the ground as it searches for acorns and seeds.

September heralds a season when an assortment of activities now fill our lives. It’s apple picking time. It’s a trip to our farmer’s market, filled with pumpkins, winter squash, carrots, and peaches. We clean out our garden and flowerbeds. And let’s not forget that the cooler weather chases us willingly back to the kitchen for baking cakes, cookies, donuts, and pies. The scent of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla swirl in the air. 

Below I’m featuring an apple treat. This is an old recipe I copied from my mother’s handwritten notebook of her most loved recipes.

Nobby Apple Cake                                                           

6 TBSP butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sifted flour
6 cups diced apples
½ cup chopped nuts
2 tsp vanilla

Cream margarine, sugar and eggs;
Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture
Stir in diced apples, nuts and vanilla
Pour into greased pan. 

Bake: 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

I prefer to lightly ice my cake with just a plain thin layer of vanilla frosting.
Great with ice cream or whipped cream or plain.

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THE LONG HOT SUMMER

Unusual dry hot weather this summer in Central Pennsylvania has browned the lawns and wilted and dried flowers and vegetable plants. I am amazed to see my daisies and other hardy flowers have already gone to seed.

I keep forgetting that Autumn doesn’t officially begin until September 22 this year, so there's time to still enjoy the summer. Tomatoes are ripening on the vines, not as large as in past years, but still plump, rosy red, and delicious—especially with a dash of salt on them. Only our daily watering has saved them from withering on the vine.    

My first very colorful and multicolored calibrachoas plant, beautiful with red, white and blue blossoms, succumbed to the heat early this summer. I replaced it with a pot of impatiens and have my fingers crossed. Even my coleus plants are struggling, despite their shady location behind a wall of ferns.

What likes this weather? Our four hanging ferns on the patio. They are basking in the humidity of the day, thanks to daily watering.

If we’re lucky, we occasionally see a thunderstorm appear on the horizon teasing us with dark steely clouds and flashes of lightning. The parched ground is only too eager to take a drink. But the amount of downpour, although sometimes slamming down in a quick torrential rush, only offers a slight relief to the vegetation and the ninety-degree temperatures of each day.

Scott and I like to watch our feathered friends, so I keep two feeders filled with seed in the middle of our yard. The bird bath nearby takes a hit each day, and I have to clean and refill it almost daily. It’s a small price to pay for the show the birds put on when we eat our meals and watch them out the windows in our dining room. Sparrows, robins, finches, thrushes, woodpeckers, and many others keep us entertained with their antics.

I think this summer has been unique. I had been hoping to see it as a busy outside one. Then, I realized that the heat that drives us inside has a purpose. There is a time to rest and a time for action. This summer seems to be telling me not to hurry, but to slow down and take some time to rest… and just enjoy life.