One Last Hurrah!
By Edith Morgan
We are very lucky to live in a zone that has four seasons – each brings its joys as well as its challenges. So now we face another autumn.
Already, we are having cooler nights, and the grass grows more slowly. The ever blooming roses are gearing up for their final blooming of this year, and soon we will begin to see whatever maples are left after the depredations of the Asian Longhorned beetles, breaking out in magnificent reds, golds, yellows, and finally dropping their leaves in preparation for the winter.
It’s a time for enjoying what we here call “Indian Summer,” a time when tourists from far and wide make pilgrimages to New England just to admire the colors on display along the highways and in our parks.
For those of us who live here year around, it is a time to take a final jaunt through our parks, enjoy our porches, and do some preparing for the coming seasons. A final clean-up will be done by the City to pick up debris that has cluttered out sidewalks and streets (mostly leaves, I hope – but there will also be swept up with the leaves an assortment of trash thrown about by the careless and the lazy). And we homeowners will be looking for mulch to cover and protect our perennials, rakes to gather the leaves and wilted blades left over from the flowering bulbs of spring.
We will make sure that our bird feeders are in place and filled for the birds that winter over, and we will plan to continue feeding some of the wildlife that frequents our yards all summer.
This year the Jewish New Year falls within a week or so of the formal beginning of fall – so for all our Jewish friends, it’s a double celebration – beginning a new year ( #5776) while at the same time welcoming the coming of a new season.
And of course it is apple-picking time: the symbol used for the New Year in the Jewish religion here is a slice of fresh apple, signifying a round, full year – with honey drizzled over it, to wish others a sweet year.
Worcester is surrounded by apple orchards, offering many varieties that you can pick yourself, or buy by the bag or bushel. Apples keep a long time, and are so very good in pies, sauce, dried, or as juice. Remember the old saying about “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”? There was a lot of truth to that old belief: apples eaten fresh provide so many benefits to us all at all ages, it seems foolish not to take advantage of this bountiful natural product every day. I see that our schools and even McDonald’s have rediscovered the wonders of this marvelous fruit. And of course it is deeply ensconced in America: remember our saying about ”It’s as American as the flag, motherhood and APPLE PIE”!
So, let’s all get out and enjoy the fruits of the season, and prepare for the seasons to come!