This Seasonal Life

"Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen;
reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.
This is how we are going to live for a long time, not always,
for every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting,
after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes."
                     - Marge Piercy

The robins and waxwings have arrived to denude the Mountain Ash of berries.  The apples have been pressed and processed.  Jars of preserves have filled the shelves downstairs.  Bags of onions and garlic are put away.  It is remarkable to me how these simple facts are harbingers of winter coming, of change, of the seasonal nature of things.  Of life.

The spring flowers came and went with showy fanfare.  We dropped in at Le Hardy for our annual harlequin duck encounter.  We had our tie-dye gigs--SpringFest, Summer Fair, Harvest Fest, and so on.  There was the garden bursting with weeds, as well as produce, and us struggling to keep up with it's vigor.  Yellowstone and hiking adventures abounded.  We were able to revive the annual late summer megavaction, following a one year hiatus.  We both celebrated birthdays.

One thing after another--new and different each time--they follow each other on and on.

And now.  The first snow.  What a beautiful life.