The garlic is in! I've been intending to get out there for some time now, into the garden, to clean up a bit and plant the garlic. Yesterday was the perfect day for it - sunshine and warm temperatures, a driving schedule a little less hectic than usual, and happy kids. How can you not be thrilled on a beautiful fall day like that? We all were, really. And all the work of the garden became a fun game for us all, lasting hours longer than I realized. The sunflower stems we were pulling and putting into the compost became scepters. Piper, the cat who followed us, because a familiar. All that garlic helped keep the vampires away. And the beans we pulled from the plants left hanging on the vines were magic beans, of course.
I didn't get everything I wanted to done in the garden, but that's okay. There will be more time, I'm certain. And the garden doesn't really ask a lot of me this time of year anyway. It feels as though everything I can get done now - cleaning out the beds, tidying up, etc - just makes the springtime work easier. It's a gift to myself, really, not a timely demand from the garden. I rather like that.
And I definitely like rambling around out there in the garden with my favorite people on a warm autumn day. Doing the work of a fall garden, and searching for magic beans.