"The Life of Summer Falls Silent"

About a month ago, while browsing through Parnassus, our favorite local bookstore, Evelyn picked out a beautiful collection of poetry by Wendell Berry to give to her sweet daddy for his birthday.  She was drawn to Terrapin primarily because of the lovely illustration of a terrapin (aka turtle) on the front, but as Dave is a Wendell Berry devotee, her choice turned out to make an excellent gift.  The poems themselves are ones that the poet and the illustrator (Tom Pohrt) imagined children might enjoy and appreciate, and to that end, Ev and I have ourselves spent some delightful afternoon rest-times reading through the volume.  Here is one of my favorites of the moment:

"Now constantly there is the sound,
quieter than rain,
of the leaves falling.

Under their loosening bright
gold, the sycamore limbs
bleach whiter.

Now the only flowers are beeweed and aster, spray
of their white and lavender
over the brown leaves.

The calling of the crow sounds
loud--a landmark--now
that the life of summer falls
silent, and the nights grow."

October 10, a poem by Wendell Berry

I love the final image of the life and liveliness of the summer slowly fading and falling silent as the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer; it is such an apt description for what has been happening both inside and outside our house!  We spent the end of the summer and the beginning of the fall on-the-go, doing all sorts of fun things:  playing in dirt parks and splash parks, visiting the zoo and picnicking at Cheekwood, attending library concerts and football games and carnivals, and soaking up time with friends and family alike:

We also kicked off our (extremely laid-back) "school" for the year with "A" week, and created some art, learned about some animals, and picked some apples:

But as September turned into October and brought along some cooler days, we slowed a bit and spent time planting fall containers on our back deck, hiking in the woods, and curating the nature collection on our front bench:

And though mid-October brought a flurry of birthday-related activities (more on that to come), we have otherwise indeed seen our summer life overtaken by the quieter rhythms of the fall, and are loving it.  Happy weekend to you, friends; we are so thankful for you today:)