Now that it's September

In the US/Canada/parts of Europe, it's time to start "preparing" for the coming winter. What things do you do, if anything?

In South Sudan we're coming to the end of the six month wet season, so normally we would be waiting for the swamps to subside, which in some parts of the country doesn't happen until early the next year. This year might well be worse than usual as we have had heavy flooding.

In Kenya we're coming to the end of the cold season (and it was very cold this year, with temperatures down to single figures) waiting for the start of the short rains, but this year is unusually dry and it looks like we're going to get less rainfall than usual.

When I first came to Africa 45 years ago the wet and dry seasons went like clockwork, but weather patterns are now very unpredictable.

I start to (reluctantly for the most part) dump my potted flowers. We have a screened in porch that we call our "summertime living room," though truthfully it's often way too humid and hot to comfortably sit out there. (I'm in the SE USA.)

But I love to have lots of flowering annuals, so it's beautiful and restful to hang out with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine in the evenings. We watch the fireflies and the moonrise.

By September, they're all pretty pot-bound. One by one, they're dumped outside, the pots rinsed and cleaned for the winter. Whatever indoor plants I have out there get brought back in before any real chill night air can nip them.

It's more fun in the spring to create the space, that's for sure. :)

Close the pool and put away the lawn furniture, pick the remaining veggies in the garden and then plow it, get out my fall/winter decorator pillows, and throw blankets. Put out the fall potpourri, and change the wreathes on the doors. Change over my summer clothes - get my winter clothes out of storage. Shop for a few new outfits. But I don't mind any of it because fall and winter are my favorite seasons.

I mourn the loss of the warm/hot summer and have to be dragged and screaming into fall/winter. We put the winterizing chemicals in the pool today and tomorrow the boys are coming over to help put the tarp contraption to cover the pool before the winter. The trees are very heavy laden with pinecones this year--more so than any other year that I can remember. The branches are bent and some hanging almost to the ground. They will start falling. They are so sappy that in the sun you can see the sap hanging in strings from the cones. We just had 3 cords of wood delivered and for the past week have been stacking (can only do about 30 minutes at a time), which has been good exercise. Time to empty the annual pots. On Oct. 1 I will decorate for fall and it will remain until the day after Thanksgiving. We will leave the deck furniture out until the end of the month then drag it into the garage for winter storage.

Nothing much. I live in a flat so I don’t have any garden work to do, and the temperature here is still about 20C, far too early to think about winter clothes. I usually change over to winter stuff mid-October, and just layer up between now and then if it starts to feel cool.

Typically, our first frost is around October 15th. So I have until then to pull up annuals & dump potted plants. I will change my front door wreath to a more fall-ish one on the first day of fall. Although, I might have to move the pink Dipladenia to the back so it doesn't clash with the fall colors.

Inside, I will gradually add in some fall accessories like ceramic pumpkins around different places. A few years ago, I spent days decorating my living room and days taking it down and putting it away. Won't go to that much trouble ever again. It looked nice but overkilled.

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/7e/4e/7e4e062841b4831636b4c577977434...

Last year there was no one here to see it because of Covid, so I didn't do any decorating at all.

>4 LadyLo: >7 perennialreader: Do you have door wreaths all year round? Is this a general custom in the US? In the UK, door wreaths usually are only displayed for Christmas - it’s quite a recent custom, we certainly didn’t have them when I was a child.

It’s been too hot in the last few months to do much garden work. I’m one year in to a new and unplanted yard, except for what I did in the spring. So it was off to the plant nursery yesterday to buy some shrubs. I dug a few holes yesterday, and they were dry, dry. So a good soaking rain this morning was welcome. I got out in the later drizzle and dug the rest of the holes. Except for the mud, it was a lot easier job.

I will be putting out some fall colored floral sprays in a couple of weeks; but we still have several months of good weather before the actual change of season. My neighbor has loaded me up with potted plants this year and they’ve lived on the covered back deck. I will have to choose which lives; I don’t have enough floor and table space for them all. I’ve also grown water lettuce in my small pond and will have to devise something aquatic inside if I want to carry it over.

>8 mlfhlibrarian: Some people keep a wreath of some kind on the door year round. I have about 3-4 that I change out during the year. I would say most people don't have any wreaths on their doors at any time. My subdivision is mostly wreathed.

...and then there are those who are already decorated for Halloween!

>8 mlfhlibrarian:, >10 perennialreader:

Yes, I was going to ask the same question. Like >8 mlfhlibrarian:, I don't recall any door wreaths. I also don't recall any of the seasonal decorations which some people mention above. The only seasonal decorations I recall are at Christmas, which were generally put up in December and taken down at Epiphany, it being considered bad luck to leave Christmas decorations up after that.

>10 perennialreader: I think Christmas wreaths became a thing here in the 90s, probably a custom copied from the US, but I’ve never seen any other type of seasonal door decoration and very few people decorate for Halloween, trick or treating still isn’t very popular here.

Yesterday I noticed that Marks and Spencers, a well known store in the UK, is putting its Christmas foods out on the shelves - Christmas puddings and cakes! I don’t normally begin to think about Christmas until after Bonfire Night (November 5th)

>12 mlfhlibrarian:

Living outside UK I miss Bonfire Night!

I have no memory of Hallowe'en except as the eve of the church feast day of All Saints (All Hallows) on 1st November and a bit of interest in Samhain from those following pre-Christian religions. I think all the parties, decorations, costumes, pumpkins, trick or treat, etc, must be a fairly recent import from north America.

>13 John5918: Halloween and all of its customs were brought to North America by Irish immigrants fleeing the famines of the 19th century. Sadly, in my opinion, it has grown into the 3rd largest holiday celebration in the U.S. I'm having none of it and refuse to participate in any way, shape, form, or manner. That's not to say I do not decorate with pumpkins, but never jack-o-lanterns.

SOME of the people in my subdivision do a Clark Griswold Halloween on their lawns. But my children are grown and I carved 2 artificial pumpkins years ago that I put out on Oct. 31 and bring back in when I run out of candy. That's my limit on Halloween.

I do love fall, especially white ceramic pumpkins. So I do those inside, but that's about it. Can't handle orange in any shape, form or fashion.

Don't want to take too much time away from reading. ;)

Orange is my least favorite color too; unless it is mixed with other tones. Peach, coral, etc. I bought silk Chinese lanterns for daughter’s fall wedding (what? Seven years ago now?). And I pull them out for an accent now.

>14 Tess_W: Geez, I was going to say get ready for Halloween. Always enjoy giving out candy and seeing the kids dressed up, then on to Mass for All Saints and All Souls the next two days. Have two cousins who died this year, so comemmorations mean something to me, especially this year. We are an Irish-American family, so my view is much different to yours, I guess.

I like Thanksgiving, which we celebrate with my widowed brother-in-law.

We have pared Christmas down to Mass and enjoy listening to Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College. Was there as an undergrad, so fun to have that connection. We don't do gifts anymore, but try to make a donation to something and have a family meal. Tree and nativity scene.

I enjoy fall, but January-March is always dicey for travel. Good for knitting projects and reading.

>17 nohrt4me2: Mass for All Saints and All Souls

That part was definitely part of my upbringing, but no sign of Hallowe'en and no parties or decorations.

And a view from Ireland: Legends of the fall: is autumn all it’s cracked up to be? (Guardian)

With its cosy socks, simmering hotpots and scary festivals, autumn is rich in tradition. But should we insist on fetishising a season of rain, fading light and tedious poetry?...

I await cooler weather with pleasure. I have COPD and congestive heart failure, among other things, and the cooler weather makes my breathing much easier.

>17 nohrt4me2: All Souls is kind of new. There was always Mass, but in last 10 years or so, more of an effort to remember those associated with the parish who died in the past year. When my son went to Catholic school, the kids dressed up as their favorite saint for Halloween and they had a little parade. It's a nice for kids, but some Protestants consider it heathenish. Then again, some Protestants think we worship statues ... Sigh.

>19 CurrerBell: I hear you! I have a bad mitral valve and chronic blood cancer, both of which make breathing hard at times, and heat makes me feel like I am smothering in a blanket. I live in Michigan, but we had a cumulative three weeks or so with weather at or above 90. Finally sprang for the central A/C to take the edge off. Hope to offset the energy consumption with the new furnace, smaller water heater, and energy-efficient windows. Take care and enjoy the cooler air!

>20 nohrt4me2:

I seem to remember that on All Souls' Day we would have a procession to the cemetery and have some prayers there, possibly the rosary. It was usually cold and rainy, but it was still fun for young altar servers.

>20 nohrt4me2: My kids’ school did the Saints procession on November 1st. My girls always chose interesting Saints.

>13 John5918: I take it you’ve never read Halloween Party by Agatha Christie! There’s a good description of the sort of party that used to happen before all this trick or treating took over. Did you never bob for apples?

My gran used to make a cake called Parkin for Halloween and Bonfire Night, which is made from oats and treacle, it’s very dark and sticky and absolutely yummy. Haven’t had any for years :(

>23 mlfhlibrarian:

Thanks for reminding me of the Agatha Christie story. I suppose I just assumed that was part of the upper-middle class way of life of that era which passed most of us by. I think I have bobbed for apples once or twice, but never at Hallowe'en. The Parkin cake sounds delicious!

I don't recall ever having done the dress-up-like-a-saint thing, despite spending nine years (K-8) in 18th Century England, or Catholic school, as they preferred to call it. But if I had, I would have probably chosen Saint Perversus.

I heard his name so many times, that even now, if someone says "saint," my Pavlovian response is to ignore the next word an hear "Perversus" in its stead. "Saint Perversus!" was a declarative ejaculation my aunt would say often - really, for as long as I knew her.

In my late 30s, and she in her early 80s, I figured it was fairly safe for me to challenge her on the background of her oft-invoked patronage, without suffering the back of her hand - a genetic faster-than-light response by all the women of my mother's ancestry. In my neighborhood, my mother was referred to as "The Five Fingers of Death" by all our friends, but they'd never say it in her presence.

But I digress. Having queried my aunt about this Saint Perversus guy, she had to ponder that herself. Mind you, even in her late 90s, she could complete the New York Times crossword puzzle, but this question took her a while. At some point in her past, she had slurred "Saints, preserve us!" into "Saint Perversus!" - and apparently no one noticed or everyone was too afraid (or polite) to correct her.

>25 WholeHouseLibrary:

Hm, slurring a saint. I wonder whether that's a mortal sin or just a venial one? Well, as long as she didn't enjoy it...

True sign of weather about to change: I changed out the summer blankets on the bed to winter ones!

>27 Tess_W:
I never put my winter blanket away! Just kept it folded up on the bottom of the bed. Last night I pulled it up far enough to cover my feet (temp dropped into the 40s F.) I love fall, the colors, the cool crisp days and nights, the smells of leaves and fireplaces and spicy mulled cider!