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Monday, November 14, 2011

Embers

My insides tend to drop a little when summer comes to an end.   It’s a symptom of living in New England.  I know what’s coming.  Fall arrives and dread ensues.   This year though, we’ve had a warm autumn, so my seasonal adjustment occurred later than usual.  I threw on my lined jacket for the first time last week; grateful for the leather gloves stuffed in the pockets from last spring.  

Something clicked though, at 4:17 pm on Saturday afternoon, at which point the house smelled like cinnamon and cloves from the pumpkin bread I’d baked to freeze for Thanksgiving.  My hands were stiff from Murphy-Oil-Soaping the kitchen cupboards.  Beef stew simmered on the stove top.  My husband entered the kitchen after a day of raking, carrying in the aroma of fresh air and pine, mulched needles and composting leaves.  He crumpled paper, laid kindling and lit a match.  A puff of smoke billowed from the fireplace before the draft inhaled the smoke upward.  

At that exact moment, like a picture in time lapse photography, I transitioned from summer to fall, from afternoons plowing through glimmering water on a following sea, to bone deep warmth delivered by seasoned logs popping on a cast-iron grate. 

It’s so hard to relinquish summer.  It takes me weeks to let it go, to settle into long hours cooking in the kitchen, afternoon sunsets, earthy red wines alongside dishes of thickened stew.  The missing piece though, arrives with fire—hot embers wrapping me in cashmere heat, offering me permission to tuck myself inside.   


19 comments:

Anne Gallagher said...

Yes, but at least you have a transition. We went from summer to fall in the span of two weeks, had one week of foliage turning, and then monsoons. Then it was cold enough to snow (and did in the mountains) and now it's 70 degrees again.

We have irresponsible weather. It doesn't follow any discernable pattern and we're always wondering what the day is like outside. The weather people can't even get it right.

Old Kitty said...

I so want to move in with you now! LOL!!

Cinnamon, cloves, pumpkin bread...!! Sigh.

Take care
x

Jennifer Shirk said...

I do love fall, but I could easily live with summer all year long. :-)

But there is something to be said for sitting by a fire, having hot apple cider, and the smell of pumpking bread baking. Such comforts of home!

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Oh, I do look forward to that first fire in the fireplace, but it hasn't gotten cool enough here yet. LOVE those cozy little fires on a chilly afternoon. Little. I repeat, little. (My hubby tends to make 'em so big, the fluid boils in my eyeballs, but that's okay. I can move to another seat ...)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Oh, but your description of your first fall day sounds awesome to me!

Jacqueline Howett said...

I love your writing manner. For a moment there, I thought I was reading a story, then it merged in parts like poetry.

Beautiful description. What detail.

I live in Florida, but I use to live in Maine, so I know all about it. In the summer you're thinking about that long Winter that will soon enough be coming again.

But its sounds like you have much to be thankful for.

Gee! I am missing Maine now, with all this talk of a cosy fire-place!

Jacqueline Howett said...
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Jacqueline Howett said...
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Author R. Mac Wheeler said...

Hi!

Just stopping by to thank you for dropping by last week and commenting on my interview over on the Piedmont Writer.

I really appreciate Anne offering her forum. Great lady. Great writer.

Regards,
Mac

Carol Kilgore said...

Summer is hard to let go of for me, too. But here in San Antonio we're in "Still Summer" - it's 80-something.

glnroz said...

that looks like a story book,,,Here, 100+ next week upper 30's, today 81. seesaw, seesaw,

'Yellow Rose' Jasmine said...

You've come as close as possible to making me want to be in fall season right now. And that says a lot.
I really am looking forward to more of a summer nearly all year long, but this was lovely. I could imagine being there.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

We've had some cold weather already and we've had fires a couple of times just to warm the living room. I had to see summer go but I do like the crackling of the fireplace.

J.B. Chicoine said...

As much as I love summer and warm weather, there's something about feeling all cozy indoors when snow comes...and I don't have to go anywhere! Makes me want to paint...and bake...

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

It all sounds so cozy -- until the snow.
Ohio is all I can handle.

Mary

Talei said...

Oh I like the sound of that pumpkin bread and it would be lovely to curl up in front of a fire right now.

Happy writing this week! ;-)

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Can I move in with you? Seriously, I'm not too big. I'll hardly even take up space. I'll just lie in a corner with your cat. I just want to wrap myself up in your life and your worldview. It's beautiful. I need to learn how to see my own life this way. I need to stop and enjoy my life, no matter the season.

Anonymous said...

We just had a fireplace fire the other night and roasted marshmellows in it. Ah, the simple things in life are so much fun.

Umā said...

I am much the same way at the end of the summer and struggle through November until the light just starts (a little teeny bit) to return in December. But you capture the romance of New England autumn, it's true there's much to be thankful for in it.