Late Summer Colors

Acts 14:17b "...He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”



This basket of ripe peaches sat on our table during  last weekend's camping trip. I was struck by the beauty of the varied hues--no tweaking needed!

In our backyard, the blackeyed susans are in bloom. Because of their shady location, they never bloom till the end of summer when, at last, they cannot help themselves!

The beautiful clusters of choke berries are gleaming in the sun, even as the leaves begin to have a slightly yellow tinge.

The season when Summer eases into Fall is one of the most beautiful times in Wisconsin. The Canadian geese are beginning to gather and take short practice flights, honking their way across the sky. Soon they will be gone.

The corn has tasseled and begun to change from verdant and shiny to brown. When I first moved to this part of the state, I watched for the corn harvest, only to be surprised at how many fields of corn remained till cold weather. After the sweet corn was harvested and filled the stores, I discovered that most of the corn still stood in the fields--for dairy cattle. When the stalks and ears turn crisp and dry they are harvested for silage.

The sweet corn crop has been remarkable--so sweet and juicy! The tomatoes are ripe and I hope some of my church folk remember that their pastor loves garden tomatoes! The wheat is harvested, but the soybeans are still green and growing. This makes for beautiful landscapes of color on our rolling hillsides. They will gradually change over the next month or so to yellow, gold, orange and brown.

The temperatures are erratic too. It is going to be 90 today, but the nights are cool and next week is forecast to be sharply cooler. I do love the crispness of fall, the colors, the nostalgia that somehow always arrives on the wind, the awareness (sometimes melancholy) of change and time passing. I love fall clothes--sweaters and boots and jackets--and the scent of smoke on the air, the orange pumpkins in the fields, the anticipation of frost and then--winter. Not anticipating that so much.

God is in the reminders of constancy even in the change. The cycle of seasons will remain long after my life is gone and no one remembers my name, except God. Meanwhile, I'm going to buy the last fruit, and ears of corn, and tomatoes, and put off storing my summer clothes till frost is in the air.

The Queen Anne's Lace by our little creek is going to seed.

I hate to let the warmth go. At the same time I am anticipating the next season--in the earth and in my life.

Change is coming. I feel it. Do you?