The Season You're In - Friday Five

Kathrynzj has posted a fall Friday Five:
Headquarters for me is the northeast of the United States. Here school is getting back in session, the tease of autumn is in the air (or the hope for the tease of autumn is in the air) and church life is gearing up to full throttle.






One thing I've learned with blogging and social media is that the where I live is not necessarily where you live. And so I want to know what September means to you, in your place of the world and time in your life.


This week's Friday Five is:


What are 5 things that the beginning of September mean to you?






Bonus: What's one thing you could do without?

Kathrynzj has posed a fall FF. But we are far from the fall I knew when I lived up north. And I am far from Texanized in my interior calendar so this is going to be more of a Yankee version than where I am living now. Also note that my left shift key is not working so if all the letters that should be capitalized aren’t…well, tough. The laptop goes to the fix-it shop this afternoon.

1. School; I taught for 15 years before I turned to preachin’. I am like a fire horse when it comes to September. I have been restless all Aug. because I wasn’t planning adult ed. classes, thinking about bulletin boards etc. I am teaching a bible study starting the 21st so I spent some time devising a pre-test for my class. I have not taught bible in this parish before and I don’t know what they know. I have missed teaching a regular bible study. I am leaving it up to the group as to what book we are going to study. They do want a spiritual reading of the Bible rather than a scholarly study of the book. And I can appreciate that. Some of these folk have been reading their Bible for years but want something more out of it. It is time to put on my Benedictine allegorical hat.

2. Fall weather; I love the crisp mornings, the leaves turning, etc. it is my favorite season. But in Texas we don’t get a real fall. And since we have had only a thimble of rain in the past 2 months and triple digit temps for over 2 months, I am covetous of Kathryn’s fall. I think I now know when I am going to visit my friends in Ny.

3. Rain; I have blogged about it; prayed about it; cussed about it. There is nothing like a crisp fall day with a gentle rain. But we haven’t had any this summer. The yard is dry. The leaves are dry but they won’t fall until Dec. The garden burned up months ago. It won’t be until October until we get fall-like weather if even then. I do fear that when we do get rain, the ground is so hard-pan that it won’t be able to absorb it and then we will have floods that will take the topsoil with it.

4. Pecans; we have 2 large pecan trees in the yard. They must be the kinds that have nuts every other year because we didn’t have any last year. But this year they are full of green nuts that will fall in the fall. But since fall isn’t here we don’t have nuts yet. I look forward to having those fresh nuts and some pecan pie. I always add a bit of bourbon to my pecan pie to make it a bit richer.

5. Smells and foods; There are certain smells that speak to me of fall. Of course, wood smoke or leaf smoke but there are certain spices that also remind me that it is fall—cinnamon and apples, clove and all spice. I generally don’t roast pork during the summer—I barbeque it. But in the fall roast pork with cloves and the last of the summer peaches, or ham and beans seem to go with the season. Lima beans and corn, fried green tomatoes are southern delicacies as the gardens begin to be put to bed for the winter. In CA it was time for cabbage and broccoli—oh did the fields stink after having been so strawberry-sweet all summer. It is the time for butternut squash rather than zucchini.

Bonus: Heat—did I mention that it is freakin’ hot down here?