Pumpkin Moonshine

The giant pine in the yard next door is dropping gold needles down the driveway again. The gutters on that side of the house are softly filling up with yellow and I have been somewhat fretfully shifting piles of paper around the house looking for where in the world I might have put the business card of "Cesar" who came two years ago (I forgot last year) with his mustached smile and his cousin and cleaned the gutters. I think maybe I haven't looked in the junk drawer yet. What do you think? Is it there?

Last night while A put the kids down I unloaded our pumpkins from the back of the van by moonlight and arranged them on the front steps: soft, pleated orbs glowing there in front of the porch pillars. How in the world did there come to be six pumpkins on my front porch waiting for their respective owners to carve them into jack-o-lanterns? That seems impossible. Amazing how fact moves on without our real absorption in life. It takes a long time to understand and know a new person....I can't believe there are four little people who live in my care these days and that some of them have been here for years.

The maple in the front yard is starting to go from dark burgundy to a brighter flame scarlet. And the burning bush that has wedged itself into our hedge is already dropping its leaves on top of the pine needles in the driveway. Time to test-drive a few new recipes for pumpkin pie or roasted  meats, light some candles, boil some spices and orange peel and figure out how to seal our windows with that plastic film stuff I bought a few years ago and never manage to actually get up.

I wish you a few moments under the moonlight for pumpkiny reflection, a giant mug of tea and a slow, slow wind-up to the season of cold weather illness. My first patient is moaning on the sick couch behind me as I type with feverish cheeks. I am taking my cod liver oil and believing in mommy resilience.