Sunday Afternoon Tea

Pour a cup of hot tea, nibble on a slice of buttery cinnamon sugar toast, and let's think of the sights and sounds of the end of one season and the beginning of another.

If you've read CTB&Me long enough, you will know my obsession with the growth of corn in the summer. One may not completely understand that obsession but it is certainly well documented.

So, it gave me quite a smile when my husband's army buddy walked into our living room last week and the first thing he commented on was how tall the corn was in our state compared to his. Now, that's my kind of house guest!

I've been taking the long route home a lot these past couple of weeks. From late July through October, the scenes are as beautiful as any ocean or mountain to one who grew up across the gravel road from a grain elevator.

There are fields of corn and soybeans, red barns, goats and sheep from time to time, horses grazing beside a small house, wild flowers growing among the long grass at the side of the road... that which is beautiful in my part of the country.

It won't be long now when we begin to see less green and more golds and rusts. The field corn will dry on the stalks until safe to harvest in due season. As for the sweet corn, well that has been available for a month now (also much to the surprise of our Northern friend). I prefer to purchase it from the farmer who parks his pickup truck near where the highway meets the road to our house. My husband likes the corn sold from the back of the truck that parks near the Pizza Hut in town. Go figure...

There is something about the change of seasons that gives me peace. The same kind of peace I feel when holding a newborn baby. The inward knowing that God has not given up on Humanity... the proof of continuation. New life... a new season. The signs are all around us that summer is near its' end and we are about to turn the corner to the change before us... deep rust, bronze, and golden mums are at the grocery store, and Wal Mart... also outside Ace Hardware, although we leave with only AA batteries. I look back and promise myself I'll purchase at least a couple of mums later.

I am looking forward to a chill in the air (although we've had an unusually cool August!), sweater weather, the changing leaves, hot apple cider, and... pumpkin spice lattes. I may only be able to afford one this year but you can count on me sipping it slowly and enjoying every moment. Even my reading changes with the seasons. Come September I once again become interested in big works of fiction and as the sun begins to set earlier on the horizon each evening... that is when I love to read mystery novels. :)

There is something else about the change of seasons I appreciate. They bring about the opening of my eyes... waking me up from slumber... seeing my surroundings in a fresh, new way again. It is difficult to believe one can come to take robins for granted but it happens every year. In April I have been known to stand at the window and watch them for a long time. By August they have become the most familiar of neighbors, upon whom I give a nod of appreciation but they no longer are gazed upon with the same welcome as they were months before.

So... I will make certain to take the time to look at... really gaze upon... the corn in the fields, the lush green leaves of the trees, the overgrown brush on the forest floor at the end of the lane (the area that gives me Bigfoot imaginations), the amazing large sunflowers next to a little house in town, and the "Pick Your Own Blueberries" sign where the county roads meet near the high school.

As late summer will soon turn into early autumn, I want to really see what is happening around me and burn them to my memory for that day in January... the one where I am wondering if the colors and scents of another season were only things I dreamed at one time. But that's another day to ponder. :)