November with rosemary...

Last leaf magic of the season

Milkweed Pod seeds

Rosemary branches in decorative basket

...Once November rolls around, the weather in Ohio is up for grabs.  Wet and cold are the day's beginning with what has been predicted to turn into snow. A lot of people struggle with the time change differences, and adding insult to injury is the arthritic wet that has come upon us. Strangely enough, I don't seem to have quite the same problems a others seem to struggle with.  I am sure that is due in part to the myriad of herbs and vitamins I take throughout my day.  Holy basil is a huge help to me as the sunlight continues to hide from the Magic City.  Investing in a pontoon boat might be wise, too.  But I digress. Yes, it has been raining a lot.  Between wind and rain, the autumn color is lying soggy on the ground everywhere.  Rain water makes colors pop, if one is willing to venture out into the rain to capture interesting leaf magic before snow changes the landscape.  I like snow, just not yet.  I was hoping that the white gems of flakes would not grace us until Thanksgiving.  We have had such a short autumn season this year and I have very few fall photos.  But sometimes less is more.  Decisions about which images to use for my calendar are nudging me to work a bit faster.  The holidays are approaching and I need to complete this project along with several others before those special dates arrive.   
        The scent of rosemary was such a joy to me as I harvested a modest amount from the plants I had brought into my kitchen.  Harsh winds and colder temperatures told me it was time to bring in the fragrant herbs or let the first freezes have their kiss of death on them.   My next purchase needs to be a spray bottle for for misting the pots of rosemary.  The dry atmosphere in my apartment does not let most of my herbs survive the winter inside.  In the past I was able to take in herb plants over the winter when I had a large house along with my photo studio.  The rosemary plants usually bloomed during the winter producing delicate blue-lavender flowers.  I also enjoyed the bright red pineapple sage blossoms during dreary winter days.  They brightened my days much  the same as did the sight of sturdy cardinals that brought  a bit of color to winter's lonely white landscape.  But those are days past that cannot be revisited.  Le Petit Jardin cannot come into my apartment.  There is no room, and protecting the plants from ever-curious kitties is nearly impossible.The scent of rosemary helps to carry me along to the holiday season. 
         Rosemary symbolizes remembrance.  Good memories abound for me, and this time of year helps to stir the memory pot, so to speak, as I think about the family stories and experiences.  It's called life.  One should enjoy it.  Bad things happen to everyone, but the bible encourages us to concentrate on the good things.  That is the value of herb gardening for me.  Each wonderful fragrance represents a memory.  
Good times, good aromas.  Fortunately the Internet now makes it possible to have the herbs one needs for crafting if one's garden hasn't provided what is needed.  This summer was not a good one for gardening.  It was far too hot here in Ohio.  But I did manage a few herbs over the warm months and now into the colder times.  I will miss my chives in scrambled eggs.  The chives would survive inside, but I simply have nowhere to put them.  Marjoram will have to be my cooking mainstay during the winter.  That is alright with me.  I love marjoram in everything.  
            Currently I am gathering herbs for blending to place in dream pillows.  Everyone deserves a good night's sleep.  Remembering when a friend shared how he got through a tough time in his life having the dream pillow I had given to him, I have begun blending this year's herbs to that cause.  An acquaintance of mine has had several family deaths in a short period of time.  She has been having a difficult time managing her grief at their loss. Somehow I feel that an herbal dream pillow will have a therapeutic effect that may help her through the process. Herbs can be healing on many levels.  Aromatherapy is one of those levels.  
             We did not get the snow that was predicted so far.  The Magic City saw only the lightest dusting of snow in spots.  As I looked out my window,  it is gray and overcast, but we are at least dry for the moment.  The downed leaves looked like forlorn bits of color left from a parade having passed by.  By now many of the local trees are bare.  What happened to our colorful fall display?  It looks as though we have been granted maybe three days of autumn at most so far.  My yard looks like the scene of a miniature war zone with tiny bomb craters everywhere created by the Squirrelzinis frantically burying their precious nut treasures.
Just when I was discouraged at the dreary day, a bit of November sunlight broke through the gray clouds.  Just when I think it must surely be 10 pm, it is only 7 pm.  The fall time change still has me befuddled. But if there is one thing I have learned is that to each season there is beauty.  The season has changed with less quite definitely being more.   Somehow we can finally see missed beauty, appreciating it now that "stuff" isn't blocking it.  I am in transition, moving to the next season that will soon be upon us.  November is a time for packing away summer and spring, making way for winter thoughts and projects.  We should all be making preparations for the next season.  That ever-present cup of tea will accompany me a I craft my holiday gifts, and there may be a cookie or two to help the cause...