Friday, October 10, 2008

'Beware the Autumn People'

Lindsay and I are in constant conversation about which season we love the most. Granted, there are a moments where we talk about Bills or Babies, but mostly we're draped about the house, discussing whether the weather of endless evenings in summer is better than bustling brisk of Christmas, or if it can compare with the first sweet breath of fresh dirt in Spring, which rivals the crisp burnt reminder of Autumns past.

Pretty much, Lindsay loves Summer first for its chlorine-filled memories and sand-filled futures, then Fall for its new school year ('cause she's smart) and the fashion that comes with ('cause she's pretty).

I have to say that, year after year, I am thoroughly convinced by whichever pageant is presenting itself at the moment. So this year...Today...I am fully for Fall.

{Our Dog on Our Porch}


{The Plants* on the Porch}


{Syd in a Patch of Pumpkins}



{Patch in a Patch of Pumpkins...and Linds}

Our dear friends Suzie and Syd called us up and wanted to head upstate and see the country, so we did and it was a Autumn Wonderland. We picked up some fall sundries and enjoyed good company. It was golden and hazy, but it was covering a dark truth. After all, the turning of fall is only ever about one thing:

"Sleep is a patch of death, but three in the morn, full wide-eyed staring, is living death! You dream with your eyes open. God, if you had the strength to rouse up, you'd slaughter your half-dreams with buckshot! But no, you lie pinned to a deep well-bottom that's burned dry. The moon rolls by to look at you down there, with its idiot face. It's a long way back to sunset, a far way to dawn, so you summon all the fool things of your life, the stupid lovely things done with people known so very well who are now so very dead -- And wasn't it true, had he read somewhere, more people in hospitals die at 3 A.M. than at any other time ... ?"


Deep in the back of your throat it waits for its annual subsiding. The one night when creaking gates bang open and shatter on dead rock walls giving way to shadowy characters with wicked motives.

"Mr. Dark nodded, pleased. "What's your name, boy?"

Don't tell him! thought Will, and stopped.
Why not? he wondered, why?


Jim's lips hardly twitched.
"Simon," he said.

He smiled to show it was a lie.

Mr. Dark smiled to show he knew it."



There are those whose breath aches for the crack of treaded leaves, the race of whipped wind 'round a broken tomb stone, the shallow gasp of black night as it settles on your chest.

"…Beware the autumn people...For some, autumn
comes early, stays late, through life, where October follows September and November touches October and then instead of December and Christ’s birth there is no Bethlehem Star, no rejoicing, but September comes again and old October and so on down the years, with no winter, spring or revivifying summer.
For these beings, fall is the only normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond.
Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No, the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks through their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars.
They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles—breaks.
Such are the autumn people. Beware of them."

We are they. The Autumn People. So then, are you, our closest and finest friends. And to solidify our kinship...

a gift:

As you very probably know, the quotes above are from this, the finest fall book ever penned. I love to read this book every fall. It has the perfect mix of Summer Ending, Growing Up, a Haunting Pandemonium Shadow Show, and Trains...

"Those trains and their grieving sounds were lost forever between stations, not remembering where they had been, not guessing where they might go, exhaling their last pale breaths over the horizon, gone. So it was with all trains, ever."

We invite you to join our Harvest tradition and curl up in this book. Don't have a copy? We'll give you this one. You know the drill: post a comment about your very favorite part of this season and, on Thursday the 16th, we'll draw a winner and send you a box of fall, New England Style.


Well, go on...



~P
{I took every picture used in this post, even the book one... I know, right?!}

{Oh wait...not the one I'm in, Suzie took that.}

{Better Stacy?}



*That green thing is called a Goose Gourd; at least, that's what the Lady on the Farm said.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Autumn is my favorite. Always.

In October you get days that are mild and nights that have just enough bite to get you indoors.

But Autumn also begs for adventures. Like playing hide and seek in a graveyard.

Or Fall is driving up through Aspen Grove. And Sweeny Todd at the Castle Theater.

It's cider, baked pumpkin seeds and evening walks filled with just enough anxiety coursing through you that perhaps you'll be the victim of an All Hallow's Eve prank. Or murder. Please, prank.

Fall means "The Nightmare Before Christmas" under blankets with the kids, giggling and screaming.

It means raking leaves. And jumping into them.

Or maybe reading a book on the deck with a blanket over your chilly legs.

It is the beginning of hot cocoa season. And bonfire season.

And Amelia's birthday.

Fall gives us the best stories. Like about vampires. Or hook-hand man. Or werewolves.

Fall means dates with Amelia that could find us watching a movie we both feel brave enough to see but then gives us nightmares for a month.

And, maybe above all, Autumn means weekend filled with Football, glorious Football.

Anonymous said...

My favorite part about fall is the smell.
The smell of the leaves especially, that somehow reminds me of American Indians preparing meat for winter.

I don't know where this comes from.

Unknown said...

Brett's answer is too damn good.

For me, the coming of fall is that "cold" smell in the air (I don't know how else to describe it, because Portland has the same smell as SLC) and the arrival of all things pumpkin flavored. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin bagels, pumpkin cookies. Glorious. (And sweet potato french fries from Burgerville.)

And I am taking your advice and reading SWTWC starting tonight. We own a not very pretty mass market paperback copy.

Didn't you say L reads Dandelion Wine at the onset of summer? What is it with you people and Bradburian Seasonal Changes?

Stacy said...

Patrick I am thoroughly convinced that your marriage to Lindsey has made you infinitely more intelligent and well-versed...or at least brought that side of you out of hiding to match your comic wit. And who knew you were such a great photographer too? Though how "you" took the picture of yourself and Lindsey in the pumpkin patch is still a little suspicious.
If you want to know my take on Fall go to my blog under "Autumn Musings", I love it, I love pumpkin (except for pie), enough said.
But I'm sure nothing here compares to Fall in New York.

Anonymous said...

Justin would like it to be known that Ray Bradbury gave the commencement address at his Claremont McKenna graduation ceremony, for what it's worth.

Autumn for us is a time of spookdom. Last night Justin was wearing his iPod whilst doing the dishes and taking notice of his reflection in the window above the sink. He thought to himself "What if, just now, the face of a drowned girl appeared in the window next to mine?"

Just then, I, who had retired to the bedroom after my shower and had dozed off whilst reading, opened the door and startled the poor unsuspecting boy within an inch of his sanity.

This country isolation is getting to the poor ol' chap. Now we're off to watch the French zombie flick "They Came Back." SPOOK!

Momma said...

What a spectacularly splendid post! I would like extra credit for making the Scout shot (with your lovely autumness) as my screen saver on my work computer, so I can see you (and miss you) all day long. You seemed to have forgotten the sights, sounds and smells of the harvest in Idaho in your descriptions of autumn. The smell of dirt, freshly dug, with the clanging of machinery. The sky bright blue and big white clouds and lunch with crisp apples and salami sandwiches eaten on the tractor. Uncle Tom sent Grampa Seth a video of the potato/beet harvest to Adamondiomin while they were serving their mission and Grampa watched it over and over. Thank you for stirring such lovely imagines. Love Momma

Suzie and Nathan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Suzie and Nathan said...

Oh, oh, oh, me, me, me. I wanna post, too. No one seems to have mentioned plastic jack-o-lanterns filled with loads of teeth-rotting yumminess. And what about the great disappointment of having picked the most perfect Halloween costume and then finding out that it's 20 degrees outside so you have to then cover up and or layer underneath spoiling the formally spectacular silhouette of your dashing design.

Just had to be a downer, didn't I?! Man, that little girl of mine looks so stinking cute on that pumpkin!

Anonymous said...

I like fall because it means going back to school (which I don't do anymore) and raking leaves (which I've never done) and pumpkin-flavored things (which I don't really care for) and Halloween (which I don't think anyone older than about 10 should really get "excited" about), and because the steady decay of nature is a reminder to us all that Death awaits us, sooner than we think.

Anonymous said...

I kill a lot of things, Josh. Buzz is just one of 'em.

Matt Mattson said...

I love how during the Autumn Earth's plant life dies creating a clean slate from which new life emerges.