After Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Leaves

It was Thanksgiving Day. The empty red and yellow hummingbird feeders hanging in the window were swinging back and forth  in an erratic breeze on that cool October morning as usual. They're just outside the window -in my peripheral vision as I sit writing,  and the motion is distracting .  Not unpleasantly so;   I'm guessing the feeders are merely reminding me to take them down. Their tiny ruby-throated guest diners have headed south a couple of weeks ago and it's time to close the stations for the season.  There's sleet on the ground.
A few odd bees checked out the sweet yellow plastic flowers for a few days after they left, so I left the feeders for awhile. Just in case. It never hurts to be kind.  A few late hummers  may have even come our way, migrating from north of us,-- perhaps they even stopped  at our way station. Meantime, the feeders fed the bees, why not?  "Feed the bees, please"--another species in danger in our polluted world.   Now there's a fine reason to procrastinate  taking down feeders, if ever I heard one.

 Yellowed poplar leaves are fluttering, out there, too, some falling, some stubbornly  hanging on for dear life, waiting their turn. do they line up at the ready?  Are they thankful to be heading for earth, the cool, moist ground,  eager to be covered with a comforting blanket of snow? The trees, for the greater part, are already bare.

White Lilac, Oct. 8, 2012

 





Some bushes look like they'll never drop their leaves.
Check out this white lilac. Although we've had a dozen serious killing frosts, the leaves on this bush remain untouched. How is that possible?
Hm....Now if this tree could just grow peaches or citrus.












 I think it's amazing how some bushes and trees still  remain green while  leaves of other trees have long since fallen and  have even  been raked up, waiting for  energetic  boys to visit and jump in them.  Toss'em in the air, play, have fun, burn up endless childhood energy. Why not?  It was Thanksgiving Day, time to play, and no matter how they get spread, we'll just rake them up again, -- and again the next day too. Repeat as required comes to mind. The wind redistributes a few anyway, just for good measure.
They'll end up in the garden as rich mulch, one way or the other.  I might even pile a few on the famous heap, too. |The vines and plants have all been handily buried in the heap too, by the way. The perpetual heap, too, is already digesting the newly stored food for next year. 

Sugar-maple leaves--Faded from Red, but Ready to Play

 T.T.T.  and E.T.S., that would be Tilly the Tall  and Ebony the short, the resident pups --run around in the leaves like happy children too,  why not?  Autumn is a time of  cool fresh air, the stifling heat is gone;  the coolness of fall is  is exhilaration  itself,  storing  anticipation of winter. 
Spotted an elegant buck,  some Ruffed Grouse and a flock of geese heading south too.  It's the season, no doubt about it. The truck was white with hard frost this morning.  Why fight it?  Let's celebrate it instead.  Makes sense to me.

In retrospect, our gardens produced prolific amounts of food this year. We could not ask for more.  That's what Thanksgiving Day was about, isn't it?  A celebration of a successful harvest,  a celebration of plenty--and we did have plenty. Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful.
There were pumpkin pies with whipped cream, cranberries, new potatoes and vegetables of all kinds  at the ready, and I cannot forget that memorable turkey roasted to perfection. We are so blessed.

Post-Thanksgiving turkey leftovers supreme shall not lead me astray, I propose..... Except for turkey sandwiches, turkey salad, turkey soup, fried rice and turkey,  and turkey tacos--which ARE the best.  I shall not be lead astray by other gastronomic inventions which might put inordinate pressure on the supply of leftover turkey bits.

Uh, huh.  Tell us another one.  I can hear it now..... "Once upon a time a hungry man looked into the refrigerator." Got any new ideas for turkey leftovers?  Shhhhh....
 

Is that Incoming I hear?