Tag: apples falling

Signs of the Times

Dear Liza,

You have started back to school there in Denmark, and your cousins (and all the other kids) have, too. Fall is here for certain. All the signs say so.

The tiny library at Sunnyside School is full of older books taken off the shelves to make room for the new ones.

The leaves are changing all over the place.

Apples and pears are being offered right off the tree (or sidewalk) by overwhelmed home owners.


Sunflowers are growing up to the second floor windows…

And homemade signs are sprouting up, proclaiming faith in the democratic process.

Ready or not, here comes Fall!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Fall in the Neighborhood


Dear Liza,

Maybe it’s because our summer has been so hot and dry, but Fall is falling hard here in Portland. Leaves are falling in piles earlier than usual. The change from heatwave to rainfall seems more abrupt.

In our lovely, funky Sunnyside neighborhood, the lush flowers of summer are dying back, waiting to be trimmed into their winter rest.

Plum, apple, and fig trees are all over the neighborhood, planted decades ago by resourceful homeowners. Some folks gather them up and share them, which is really nice. One house on Taylor Street even provides little boxes to take them home!

Other folks seem overwhelmed by the abundance and the fruit just falls and rots, smelling like a brewery. Not terrible, but a terrible waste.

Piles of leaves are everywhere. They make for a seasonal carpet and art materials, as well as pulling nutrients back in the soil. But I know once it rains, we will have ‘leaf slime’ in every gutter.

So it is when summer ends. There is a melancholy, especially when it feels like Covid has cheated us of another summer’s concerts, plays, and festivals. But I am ready for Fall. The inside time and contemplation, and the creativity that come with it, are okay by me.

Love,

Grandma Judy