Gathering in October

  I haven't been able to get out in the yard more than a time or two since September.  So this evening, I made up my mind that I was going to go out.  I knew it would be dark by 7pm but there was a half hour and here I was longing to go outdoors.  So outdoors I went.  

I cut herbs: chives, oregano, mint and the teeny basil that never did much after the late planting.  I cut coleus (4 varieties) and moss rose (also called portulaca) which was begun from a cutting and popped in a container mid-summer.  

Then I went out to the shed flower bed where the cosmos, zinnia, and marigolds had bloomed so much that it was ample compensation for the frustrating lack of flowers all summer long.  And that's where I discovered something I'd never known and which filled me with awe.  I discovered how bumble bees sleep on these cool autumn nights.  They'd tucked themselves deep and tight into the center of zinnias and cosmos and buzzed sleepily at me when I brushed the bloom where they were snuggling in.  These were not honey bees but the black and yellow fuzzy striped bees.  I was so charmed by them that I would purposely brush a flower gently just to hear them buzz.  

I spoke softly to them and assured them I had no intention of seriously disturbing them.   I was reminded though that each time I've thought I'd cut flowers I've noticed the bees and butterflies buzzing over them and I felt compelled to leave the flowers alone so they might have their fill from them.   

Tonight I cut myself a bouquet because so many of the cosmos have dried up and gone to seed already.  I missed out on the deep maroon ones entirely but there were two shades of pink ones and down towards the back of the shed was a lovely yellow marigold that looked like a sunburst.  

While I was in the yard, I listened to the donkeys on a neighbor's property braying and dogs barking, children playing in yards, and a train whistle blowing.  Not a bit of traffic, nor a loud boombox.  Just good everyday, timeless sorts of sounds, sounds that have been going on in this county for years upon  years.  How much longer have bees been tucking themselves up in flowers to sleep?  Minus the train, how long have dogs barked and donkeys brayed and children called out in play just as they did tonight?  The Indians and buffalo roamed and lived here once upon a time.  For how many hundreds of years before today?  That's the connection I needed tonight.  The reminder that everything changes, but somehow it does stay the same.