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The Pumpkin Patch

10/29/2016

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The big news in Custer’s Mill this week is that Jacob Craun finally opened his pumpkin patch to the public! For years he’d grown magnificent pumpkins of all shapes and sizes, but not many people saw the vast assortment of colorful vegetables. Not that Jacob was stingy or unwilling to share his bounty, he just didn’t think people would be interested in his hobby. Did I mention that pumpkins are the only thing he grows on his seven acre farm?
Well, after about thirty years, his wife finally convinced him that folks would probably like to see the many varieties of pumpkins that dotted the back field. So this year, he’s offering free wagon rides down to the patch. Young Kate Preston was one of his first passengers. She persuaded her dad, the new town sheriff, to buy her seven pumpkins – one of each kind. What they’ll do with such an impressive collection remains to be seen. Their little house barely holds its two occupants. Maybe they’ll fill the front porch with a variety of jack-o-lanterns. Or maybe one of the sheriff’s admiring female entourage will make him a couple dozen pumpkin pies.

The Custer’s Mill Community Church is having a jumble sale next week. Rumor has it they’re selling the old pump organ that’s been housed in the sanctuary for what seems like a hundred years. There has been a lot of rumbling both for and against the sale. I just wonder who would buy such a piece of antiquity. Maybe we should take it on Antiques Roadshow to see what it’s worth before we so quickly dispose of it. Or maybe we should just let it remain in its corner beneath the stained glass representation of the Baptism of St. John. So many things to think about on this cool October eve!
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Fall Festival in Custer's Mill

10/27/2016

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​The hollow winds begin to blow,
The clouds look black, the glass is low;
The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,
And spiders from their cobwebs peep.
–Dr. Edward Jenner (1749–1823)
​

It’s autumn in Custer’s Mill. The morning fog drapes low over the mountains, and the smell of wood smoke hangs in the air. The town is resting up from a busy weekend: the annual Fall Festival. It’s the one day out of the year that the county Health Department turns its head and allows the good folks of Custer’s Mill to share the results of their summer bounty.
Reba Dove’s tomato pie definitely earned five stars from the locals, and Jane Miller’s corn pudding was gobbled up so fast that she had to run home and make another batch. The only culinary offering that raised eyebrows was Laurence George’s raw oyster stew. Even though he was giving away free samples, he still barely made a dent in the huge vat of slimy liquid. Serafina Wimsey’s herb table was busy all day. She offered fresh sprigs of rosemary and lavender tied with lace, freshly potted basil and thyme plants, and an enormous range of essential oils.
The festival was successful for the library too. Their book sale was a popular event, and many folks left with brown paper bags stocked full of winter reading materials. Library volunteers Jane Allman and Marguerite White were especially glad to see the book sale items leave the front of the library. In their opinion, the room was too small for the regular library maneuverings, and when you added a couple of tables filled with books to the space, it made shelving materials even more cramped and awkward.
All in all, it was a good day, and the citizens of Custer’s Mill deserve a lazy Monday morning. But soon, Hoyt Miller will finish his last drop of coffee and head to the town office, Nanette Steele will lumber out to the barn to feed her bleating goats, and the big yellow school bus will carry Kate Preston off to the elementary school. Another week is about to unfold in the small town of Custer’s Mill.

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Finding October

10/8/2016

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Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson
(From  A Child’s Garden of Verses, 1885)

In other gardens
And all up the vale
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The gray smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!
​
Although October is my favorite month of the year, I seem to have trouble holding on to it. Time seems to take on a new rate of travel this time of year, and before I know it, it’s Halloween and October has passed me by once again.
This year, I am intentionally trying to enjoy October. So far the rainy weekends are keeping me from the fall tasks of cleaning off the garden and putting the flower beds to rest for the winter. But I am doing my best to soak in the signs of the changing seasons: darker mornings, lengthening shadows, and subtly turning colors.
I’ve put a pumpkin on my porch, and set a pot of yellow mums beside it. A minimal decoration, but a purposeful contribution to my awareness of the month! October will not pass by unnoticed this year!

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