Hello dear readers, 

I write to you from my office, a cool breeze blowing in. Rain battered itself against the house all morning and now the sun has come through, but it’s still more autumnal than the beginning of August.

This Lughnasadh was a strange one. We’re in the middle of a renovation that’s taken over my life¹, and on Saturday morning, what should have been a simple furniture-moving expedition turned into a mild concussion. So, my Lughnasadh was decidedly less festive than it would have been otherwise.

I still did celebrate, though, in my own small way. When I wasn’t on the sofa, I ended up baking a loaf of bread and eating thick slices of it with butter and honey². I sat on the back porch, too, drinking herbal orange tea while the unseasonable wind blew through the sunflowers. In the evening, I read (slowly, re-reading sections) and watched the clouds blow in over the valley.

In the coming weeks, as the season of Lughnasadh unfolds, I do have plans: harvest the potatoes, beets, and carrots, and send them off with friends; pull out any plants that have died and dried up in their beds; bake more bread, both for myself and for my family. I’m also considering a sourdough starter—do you have one of your own? If you do, I’d love any tips you can share!

I’m certain I’ve said this before, but this season of winding down and moving toward the dark part of the year is always my favourite. I love seeing the leaves begin to dry and curl inward, and I love that the days are inching their way toward an earlier darkness. I love, too, puttering in the garden, uprooting vegetables to share and appreciating the mid-summer flowers while they still bloom.

I have never truly been a summer person, reveling in the cold, wet weather that comes with autumn and winter—though I’m sure you know this by now. And so while I appreciate all the seasons, I can’t say I’m not counting down the days until sweaters and pumpkin-flavoured everything. Apple, too—I’m already dreaming of the cider I can begin to brew in just a few short weeks.

(A volunteer pumpkin plant we hoped would bring more white pumpkins has outdone itself. Already at the beginning of August it’s nearly fourteen feet across and shows at least ten of them hiding beneath its leaves. I can’t wait to see how many there are two months from now!)

Until then, I will be thankful for what August brings: goldenrod and rudbeckia, root vegetable harvests, and the promise of autumn, just around the corner.

I hope you’re having a good week so far. I’ll talk to you again soon.

—Catherine

FOOTNOTES

¹ I keep painting, and shifting furniture and items, and doing the million things that come along with building an entirely new room in your house. I’m not complaining! But when I’m not writing, I seem to be doing things for this project. It’ll be done soon, though.

² I’m not kidding when I say I could eat this every day for the rest of my life and not get tired of it.

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