One of my favorite folk songs, “Urge for Goin’,” speaks of the change of seasons from fall to winter. “The warriors of winter give a clear, triumphant shout.” That’s a poetic way of saying that Old Man Winter is heading this way and no one, but no one, will stop him.
Last night, the temperature went down to 44 Fahrenheit. It was the kind of night when the heavy comforter, we currently have on the bed, did not find its way onto the floor by morning.
There was no killing frost yesterday. Most people who have gardens are scrambling to get in the last of their vegetables to use, to can, or to freeze.
Today was designated as the day when the air conditioner would be taken out of the bedroom window. Soon, the heat will be turned on again, and we will be making those hearty soup and homemade bread meals, and we will put aside the lighter fare of summer … like cucumbers!
The first magazine of the season arrived in today’s mail, and it centered on holiday trees and decorations. A beautiful tribute to Tasha Tudor was featured, and appreciated. It’s always nice to recall times past that seemed more simple. When I remember Tasha, I always think of the word, “Simplicity.” She passed on recently, but her work and her gentle ways will forever live in our hearts.
As winter approaches, I think of the stories a friend once told, of sleeping under wool quilts, so heavy, that there was no hope of getting up at night, nor of even turning over.
Whether you are thinking of Christmas or other Holiday gifts you plan to make, or whether you are trying to finish up some quilts so that you and yours will be warm this winter, consider making an extra wheelchair quilt or lap throw, and bring the finished quilt to your nearest nursing home, or veteran’s hospital.
Gestures of caring are never out of date, or fashion. Have fun as we transition into the next “phase” – a time of closed-up living, the coziness of home and hearth, and moreover, a time to “take joy” in all that our hands create.
Patricia Cummings, Quilter’s Muse
