"Let me enjoy this late-summer day of my heart while the leaves are still green and I won't look so close as to see that first tint of pale yellow slowly creep in. I will cease endless running and then look to the sky ask the sun to embrace me and then hope she won't tell of tomorrows less long than today. Let me spend just this time in the slow-cooling glow of warm afternoon light and I'd think I will still have the strength for just one more last fling of my heart."
- John Bohrn, Late August
I cut boughs from the crab apple to bring indoors. The pale green blind is pulled down and the shaded sunlight seeps through, throwing a soft light on the fruit.
I love the colours of late summer in the garden; yellows and golds
The fruit is bountiful on the trees, with more to harvest than I could possibly need or use.
The rowan has red clusters of berries hanging low; winter food for blackbird and redwing
But the blackberries are still hard and green
Yesterday the weather was softer with a light sprinkling of rain - a welcome relief from the heat of the past week. Summer is slowly ending, the leaves gradually yellowing on the trees.
I do love this time of year when there is still heat in the sun and the days are tinged with cooling breezes; the nights slowly draw in but the evenings are pleasant; skies are streaked with peach and lavender and the winds ease; it is very still; not a movement in the trees; just two crows pecking the ground for their supper and a few wasps buzzing round the maturing apples and plums.
We visit the lake in the afternoon and watch the sun dancing on the water; the level is way down creating a beach where once there was none.
The fields have been harvested, just the stubble remains
Sloes begin to dominate the hedgerows
And grasses idly wave as we pass by
And so ends another fruitful week of toil in the garden; harvesting tomatoes, beans and courgettes; flowers planted in the newly weeded and tidied beds - creating order out of chaos - very satisfying.
“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
Elaine