Last Hurrah For The Garden

We had a touch of frost for the first time yesterday and this surely signifies the last hurrah for the garden, but what a way to go out! A glorious October day followed highlighting the mellow hues of autumn. It was a pleasure to work and made me realise why we toil in more unpleasant conditions if we get to share in days like that. For some of the fruit it was the end of the road, we cleared the greenhouse of the tomatoes which will happily ripen off the vine now, pruned the fig which has not thrived this year and picked the last of the peppers now turning a bruised purple and red. Apple storage took up more of our time laying the fruit in rows in the dedicated store, and setting up the trestle table for the pumpkins to keep them out of the frost. Lastly we picked the pears, and not a moment too soon as the birds have discovered them and they are perfectly ripe. Normally I don't care for them as they never seem perfect, either too hard or overripe, but if you can pick them off the tree at just the right time they are perfection with mellow tones of honey and a slight fragrance you just can't put your finger on. We have been told to expect a return to normal Autumn temperatures on Monday with gales and rain, but I shall remember yesterday in all its glory and hopefully that will see me through to yet another Spring when the whole magical cycle will start again.

"October is nature's funeral month. Nature glories in death more than in life. Every green thing loves to die in bright colours"
Henry Ward Beecher