The Weeds of September
When you've got the new sweater and the new knee sox and the new book bag, you want the weather to CHANGE with the first day of September (or at LEAST the first day of school). Of course it never does, and you find yourself reluctantly shedding the new sweater before the school day is out, as Indian Summer comes back to taunt you. That's a real pain when you're six years old.
This year has come mighty close to doing just that in Cold Spring, New York, though. While we did have some days in the mid-90's, it was an uncommonly cool summer with a crazy-quilt of weather patterns that left the tomatoes sitting with little question marks popping out of their heads. (GREEN question marks, I might add...) For already I hear the heat kicking on and my bare feet are looking for slippers as the nighttime temps flirt with the 40's all too soon.
There is something so soft and ripe about September sunlight, so perfect for goldenrod and wild woodland asters. Funny, but it will become brighter again with what my mother always called "October's Bright Blue Weather" before it drears down to November and eventually becomes National Nap Month - December.
But for now my Quince trees are heavy with lightbulb-like fruits and we negotiate with the yellow jackets for the pears, but no apples this year. That crazy-quilt of weather patterns was just too much for the apple trees.
It is now that I begin making note of the location of the roots that I will want to squirrel away for the winter. I stopped pulling dandelion roots from the cutting and vegetable gardens months ago. I am marking the location of the first year Burdocks in the vegetable beds because I know from unhappy experience that the first frost renders them unrecognizeable. There are always far more yellow dock roots than I can use and they are always easy to find.
Much as I hate to, I think ahead to cold and flu and bronchitis season and how many times I kicked myself for not gathering and drying Coltsfoot leaves when they were big and lush so I could make cough syrup. Same for the Mullein leaves when lungs are in trouble.
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