While this Tennessee girl has become overly fond of spring and summer since living in Chicago ('cause there's just too much damned cold weather in these parts!)...my favorite season is fall. A lot of folks seems to share this love and all around me, people are making happy noises about the beginnings of fiery foliage and sweater season. The Farmer's market is a delight of rounded, russet glory as pumpkins, apples and gourds of every type are displayed in vibrant piles. Suddenly my tongue is dreaming of all the sweet, warm spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, anise, mace and cardamom. The fabric of love is shifting from summer silk and is knitting itself from sage, sienna and scarlet skeins.

I am bewitched by it all and in love with the richness of life. Along with many of my other "most favorite things", I see that the Mexican Fine Arts Museum is opening their annual Day of the Dead Exhibt next weekend. Their website touts it as the largest Dia de los Muertos exhibit in the nation! If you're going to be in town between September 25 and December 13, 2009 - I cannot recommend this experience enough (as I mentioned in a previous post from 2007). It is a stunning, sacred, marigold-clad honoring of the beloved dead and a joyfully-sorrowful herald of winter's coming sleep.

I've really treasured having a big garden and chickens here in the city. I recognize that it is a rare gift that has helped me to live in my values and it is one that I will miss if we move. I love composting, I love picking food right from the yard, I love feeling like these are little bits of activism and change. The garden got in early this year and has looked very promising, but the lack of sun and heat has it not yielding much more than greens. We have so many things that are small and that want to grow into harvest - but fall seems to be coming in already and I just don't know if there will be time for it all. I am looking forward to fall but am mourning the potential green babies that don't make it.

It seems I'm in the mood to post a lot of pictures! If you'd like an updated visit to our garden click on the link below (click on pics to enlarge). Chicken pictures to be posted some time soon.

Shots of the garden ( are behind this cut: )

This morning the train platform was covered with sugary frost. It is the first that I have noticed for the year. Upon smiling at its Fae glitter, I felt something shift in me as though a whisper slid by my ear; a soft “it’s coming”.

Later I walked over to the Farmer’s Market…the final one of the season. I feel sad to see them go, but also proud that I’ve visited the market every week (unless out of town) and that almost all of our produce has come from local, independent farmers. Also, I could not feel anything but joy there at the colors, smells and curves of harvest; the red, orange, golden roundness of gratitude and bounty. A canvas bag on my desk bulges with Honey Crisp apples from Michigan, with Illinois ruby sweet potatoes, butternut squash and grape tomatoes (my sweet madeleines of summer) and I feel blessed.



Subtle strains of autumn’s swan song are floating with me. I’ve been savoring fall’s more youthful aspects: those early vivid leaves, the crisp air balanced by the kiss of sun on one’s face and the tastes of cinnamon, apples and root vegetables. Today though I truly feel the hint of winter: the susurrant voices of dry leaves that skitter past quick feet, the clack of bare branches that reach for the moon, the warm puff and mist of my breath against the air.



Today I wear a silence on my skin, I feel Scorpio, Ana and Arrdu, Freya in her battle gear…but I do not feel fear or sadness. I feel gratitude for life and for the divine within and without. I am remembering my ancestors with love and longing.

I feel change coming, and I’m excited for it.