A season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Misty morning in the valley

There are mornings that take you beyond the present, to places in the past, to old memories, journeys and adventures.This morning was such a day, the cool feel of the air as it rushed into the room when I opened the door brought back memories of a thousand other mornings, back to school mornings, back to college days in Dromcollogher, going to work with Charles, and innumerable trips at dawn in places much farther away, across oceans of time, to temples, mountains and sacred rivers.

There is something beguiling about mornings like this not just brought on by the richness and weight of memories.In a few short weeks it will be the Autumn Equinox (September 22nd) when the days and nights will be equal in length, (in theory whatever about in practise). In the Southern hemisphere this signals the start of Spring but for us up North it's officially the start of Autumn. Maybe that's why each single day suddenly becomes so precious and a fine day doubly so. For the gardener it's the start of the long slow leisurely Autumn tidy up, lifting crops, clearing beds, sowing green manures and getting ready for winter.Once we retire indoors we must be content to dream. In the longest and darkest nights I often dream of how sunshine feels, warm on the back of my neck in summer, and I hunger for that feeling until it finally arrives in late Spring. Somewhere along the way to mid-summer we take the long days for granted, get gardening fatigue,"hit the garden wall" as a friend said this summer, and need to get progressively lazier until September arrives and our energy is restored once more.

With the cooler mornings I find my energy renewed. This week is promised gloriously fine, the perfect late summer/early autumn weather to get busy on jobs the lazier summer version of you has been putting off for weeks. Time to chop down spent peas and beans, dry onions and garlic in the sun and dig up main crop potatoes to store for the winter.