I LOVE October. Although the days are changing, there is still a lot of warmth and sunshine without the intensity of summer heat. Gardens are often flowering at their peak before the droop. The city and country are on fire with blazing color.
October is the month when the world turns to gold and copper. When trees become canopies of color. With the evocative rich deep reds and oranges, there is the quality of a glowy sunset all around.
But there is also something melancholy about October. As much as there is its sense of color, October also has a sepia quality to it. There are the subdued tones of browns and taupes that begin to emerge. And there is the muted amber light. October: it is the doorway to winter.
Suddenly the days carry a bit more of a breeze. There is that crisp nip in the air. Some matted moist leaves. Blustery days begin to show up. As do rainy days. And umbrellas! Another summer is gone.
It is time for more mellow days.
Days that bring us indoors more. Indoors to wrap ourselves in sweaters and fleece or wool socks. Days that give us the therapeutic feeling of having our hands wrapped around something warm. Warm foamy lattes and many bottomless cups of tea. Gone are the iced coffees, lemonades and chilled chardonnays.
Instead there seem to be an abundance of glossy gourds, orange pumpkins and an endless bounty of apples! Organic jonagolds and mini galas so perfectly pinked, crisp and fragrant.
Now it is time for real cooking. Cold fresh salads are now turning into fiery, hearty soups, souffles and curries. There is the brown woodsy spice of star anise and the fragrance of rolled cigar like cinnamon sticks.
The leaves are twirling and fluttering by the windows, as the steam gathered on them create the backdrop for some whimsical windowpane sketchings.
THERE is a shedding, a removal of sorts that October undergoes. The leaves are falling. And there are times in our lives, when we can all feel that. When our leaves are falling. When we lose our leaves and remain standing there, exposed, bony, dry and shivering in the wind. When we have lost our leaves. There are such seasons.
Thankfully, this is not cyclical, as it is in nature. But when our leaves are falling, as in the autumn season, it is good to find a warm place to tuck into inside. Fire up the stove. Simmer a pot of hot soup. Wrap our hands around a warm cup of tea or a deep bowl of heartiness. Be enveloped by the quiet, or some mellow music. To be blanketed by the indoors. Like fall, it passes. Even if there is a winter season before the spring blooms again.
Until then, there is much to savor about October. It is a time when summer and winter are side by side. There is the peak produce from summer alongside the autumn bounty. Farm grown corn, tomatoes and plums are right there along with butternut squashes, apples and figs.
Draped in stylish scarves and popped open umbrellas, we can still be out and about in our clothes that are open and more summery, even if now and then there are some puddles to skip or walk around.
There is a ray of sunshine here, a welcome little drizzle or sprinkling of rain, there. October is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. All painted with a sunset backdrop of color.
Yes, October, I do love you!
Copyright © 2010 by the Intermountain Jewish News
