Our lighting directors got it pretty much perfectly right last week. Didn't you find yourself stopping and just basking in the stunningly beautiful autumn light? The morning mists softened the disappointing end to summer, and by mid-day the sun showed signs of some warmth. By the early evening hours we could still continue our summer barbecues amidst the shrieks and shouts of children playing outside, and the light contained none of the summer's haze.
All of our different bodies of water shimmered in this fresh autumn light, and that sparkle continued into the evening. And then after the darkness descended, the full moon took over the lighting requirements! I think I was responding so much to the light because of the lack of clarity and brightness in our current public life. After all these endless months of campaigning we have now come down to this sorry state of affairs? We had been promised a new and improved political climate but once again the spin and lies are proliferating faster and faster.
And then last week we also lived through the 7th anniversary of Sept. 11. We do carry on, but the day was a long and uneasy one. I do not think we have yet found our voice about that day seven years ago. We continue to struggle with what is fed to us through the media and the pundits, or if we are young, we strive to just push it aside. None of it sits comfortably. Even our benign temperate climate, that surrounds us so gently, mocks us during these first days of autumn. It looks like paradise, it feels like paradise, yet ...
Meanwhile, in the garden, the beans continue to produce bumper crops, the pumpkins are showing their girth, the zucchini flourish, the tomatoes strive, and the cool morning dampness nourishes our new small winter vegetable plants. The perennials need a lot of attention - where did all that rampant growth come from?
We are instructed that these next two months are ideal for planting trees and shrubs and of course lifting and dividing and replanting perennials. Therefore, this new and exquisitely beautiful autumn light will have to inspire and vigorously inform an exacting and comprehensive garden schedule for late September and during the whole of the month of October.[[In-content Ad]]
