Hunkering Down

It’s a misty day in Nova Scotia today. The foghorns are out there somewhere bellowing like lost cows. My neighbor has pumpkin vines spilling down her lawn onto the sidewalk, though thieves have stolen all her pumpkins save one. My 4-year old skips on her way to daycare ’cause Halloween is coming and ” It’s my new best day, Mommy!”
Both my kids want to be zombies this year. Bless them. Is there any easier costume? Torn clothes, garish make-up. However I am worried that there might be nightmares (or nightbears per the 4-year old) later. These may be delicately ravaged and rotting members of the walking dead so that they don’t scare each other.
I’ll willfully ignore the 4 year-olds requests for jelly eyeballs and pet maggots. Fortunately she is easily distracted with cats.
After last year, I know to send them out with pillowcases. Everyone gives out candy here and thankfully they understand the all-important chocolate vs. candy ratio.
I feel lazy. Starting with my son’s birthday at the end of September I can unroll the rest of the year until I get to the end. There’s Canadian Thanksgiving which is more like a Harvest Festival, then Halloween, then American Thanksgiving, which we still celebrate because 3 out of 4 of us are American, then Christmas.
I feel sleepy. I feel filled with the good autumn air, and the smells of leaves and woodsmoke and pies baking. The leaves turned color overnight and now the beeches out my window are flounces of yellow, and my feet crunch when I walk.
My tendency is to stay in bed with a good book and read and nap and dream, and intersperse this with some idle writing, leaf catching, and tidying up the garden.
It’s time to tend everything that has been sown throughout the year. I look back and think, “Hey, I did some good work.” Some things changed, others remained the same. Life.
Winter is coming and under the blanket of snow, all manner of things will be growing.