Wow! Did that summer blow by or what? 
It seems like just yesterday I was laying down the raised beds in the pseudo-Elizabethan garden and trimming the rose bushes out of the apple tree. Could it possibly be two months since I went to Maine and
lamented that I couldn’t stay for Moxie Day?
I’m not ready for fall! Autumn cannot be here! Yet all the signs point to it.
Tina and I dropped the girls off to college last week. Joe starts his classes at Valley Forge today. So the autumn hush has returned
to the world. This tell-tale rhythm, of things slowing down as the kids are once again occupied with their adult lives, smacks of the changing season. 
The summer flowers fade. The bees grow quiet as the evenings turn cool. The golden rod explodes its sniffly pollen into the chilly breezes that have replaced the summer wind
. Mom and Uncle Tom sound like trumpet swans as the evenings tickle their noses and throats with yellow dust that blows in waves across the town. In every roadside crack and crevice autumn flowers poke their noses and heads forth to let us know that the time of dying is here again.
I know fall is here because that sense of nostalgic hope is back too. It comes as things wilt and pass away, that acknowledgement that this is how it’s supposed to be…the constant ebbing and flowing tide of life. The season makes me look back with longing for what was and forward to what will lie ahead when winter’s grip lays dormant the land I have only just begun to work.
I am not ready for the season change, 
but I know it’s time has come. I am laying up the winter sauce and blanching out the beans and squash. The smell of boiling butternut, oregano, basil, garlic, and stewing tomatoes fills every nook and crevice in our kitchen.
A week ago I was not even aware of any of these things. I may have passed them all by and never once thought of them as the signs of summer’s end. I probably could have forgotten that school, golden rod, or stewing tomatoes meant the beginning of fall. It’s been nice enough that I could have convinced myself that summer had no end… or at the very least it was not near. But here in New England there is one sign none of us can ignore; As certain as the robin means spring or snow fly signals winter, in New England it is the leaves that tell us the time has come. It’s why we call it FALL.
Reinventing the We'll 
God bless you, Pastor J, during every season of life! 🙂
And He does thanks Debbie!
It is sad to see summer go but fall has it’s own beauty for us to behold. Sometimes I wish our life seasons would change like summer does into fall, subtle changes. Before you know it, your in a new season. I welcome the change. Lord help me to grow with each of your seasons.
Pastor J, may you have many blessings in this new season.
Debby
I am looking forward to all that God will do. I am trying hard to rest in His arms of grace. May you find that rest Debbie as He walks with you through the new seasons.
Hi Pastor J,
There was such a nice rhythm and flow to this post. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing.
God bless.
Paulette
Thanks Paulette! HAs the fall come to your part of the world yet?
On the opposite side of the world we have just officially commenced our Spring, although there is actually very little difference in our seasons.
Deciduous trees are few and far between here in the sub-tropics so we do not get autumn leaves. Our winters might get a little cool at night and early morning but we have lovely warm sunny days. This year I wore more than a light cotton dress for only two days during winter and still used the electric fans most days.
However, summer is another thing. We have STEAMY summers. It gets so humid that water is constantly dripping from the head, down the face and neck, and the whole body is WET. We certainly know when it is summer.
The weather changes and we have no control over it . . . but how wonderful that our GOD never changes. He is always totally dependable and faithful. His love never changes. He always desires the very, very best for us. Rejoice in the abundance of His blessings today.
Oh Angela I do rejoice in the abundance that my God has given! He is truly a good God winter spring summer and fall He is good and brings something good out of every season! I love hearing about life in other places and your land of everlasting summer sounds so beautiful! Tell me what grows there?
What grows here? Well, that depends on the weather. Years ago we had an abundance of underground water and as long as we kept the water going, things remained green and alive. Yes, I guess we wasted water and the underground supplies didn’t replenish and those near the coast became salty and unfit for human use. Limits were enforced.
A poem by Dorothea MacKellar “My Country” was learned by all schoolchildren here years ago and is a much loved piece of Australiana. It starts “I love a sunburnt country” and one line says “Of droughts and flooding rains”.
That line sums up our weather pretty well. We had about 11 years of drought where almost everything was brown – and I mean brown. Then came floods – and I mean floods. About 80% of Queensland was under water. Lives were lost, houses and businesses were demolished, cars mangled, roads were ripped apart, bridges torn down, rail lines
twisted etc. Many of our inland rivers are dry, cracked mud until the rains come and then some stretch a mile wide.
There are some beautiful gardens here, but they take a lot of work – almost a full time job. Most people use bushes and shrubs – mostly native, which require little water and some of those have magnificent blooms. Hibiscus and Calistemon (Bottle Brush) are very popular and so are Bromeliads. Bougainvillea in all colours is everywhere and the deep blue Plumbago also grows well with little water. Azaleas, once established, give a good show every Spring. Of course, the further south you go, the better the gardens. In fact, gardens in Victoria are very English looking and Tasmania is often described as a mini England.
PS Gum trees grow well here!
Thanks Angela! Perhaps someday I’ll have the pleasrue of visiting your land of flooding deserts. Your descriptiions are vivid. In the last three months New England has had two major floods and a series of tornandoes that have left many of our towns underwater or torn to shreds. Monson a town to our south was ripped to pieces when the tornado blew through at the end of June. The forest was literally cut in half by the wind, just stumps are left. But we have no fear of drought that’s for sure!