October, October, October

• A sudden shift. Rain and cooler weather. Leaves beginning to turn orangeredyellow. Autumn's here. in full swing. Have been getting up early every day to process the latest batch of tomatoes. Our garden's abundance-- still plumping up. This has been an exceptional growing year. Have hung beans to dry.Will shuck them soon and put them up in mason jars. I love looking at those glossy beans. Maybe, when the October moon appears in my backyard to sing Peggy Lee's "Is That All there Is," I should throw a handful over my shoulder and wish for that vine to grow straight up through the dome of sky. I need a ladder. an escape hatch. I need two more days in the week.
  
• Last week we picked a lot of apples, and Peter and Meghan have been making applesauce and apple chips. Big pots bubbling on the stove. Glass jars in bathes. Buzzers sounding. Glorious smells. We picked squash, acorn, turban, hubbard. The pumpkins are fat and nearly ready. Looking forward to having my grandchildren come over. I can see my littlest grandson hoisting one up. When he was just a couple months old, we took a photo of him in the pumpkin patch.
  
• This afternoon, I will be giving a lecture on The Elegy at the Just Poets' monthly meeting.Have to finish preparing this morning.
  
• This evening going to the Academy of the Sacred Heart Reunion. Last night went to my sister Karen's class of 63 dinner. I didn't graduate from ASH. Sadly, the school closed a year before. I went to Our Lady of Mercy in my junior year, which I loved and wouldn't trade for the world. But, I spent 9 years at ASH and the community had a profound effect on me. Sunday we will be having a mass in our chapel. I know it's going to be quite moving, processing into the chapel with 77 women, singing Tatum Ergo.
• In all of this I have to grade papers, prepare for next week's classes, do some editing and finish the details on several big Arts events. October is going to be exciting.