Embracing the Moment of Late-Summer

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Sara Catherine

September. To many, this month brings a sense of a new start. A new school year. A cooler, crisper season after the heat of summer. A desire to get organized and “back to work,” so to speak, after a summer of lounging around and taking it easy (this is probably because of all the Virgo energy during this month!). Another turn of the wheel, a new season arriving.

As I’m writing this, I am witnessing a shift in the weather, but not the kind everyone starts dreaming about as Fall arrives. No pumpkin spice lattes or crunchy leaves or scarf weather just yet — instead, high humidity and lots of scattered thunderstorms. The days have a thick, hot, heavy start, which is then broken as dark clouds roll in, thunder rumbles, the temperature drops, and soon, lightning starts to light up the darkening sky.

This kind of energy has always excited me — I’m not sure I’ve ever found anything as thrilling as the period of time just before a storm. When the birds go quiet. The wind picks up, making it rain leaves all around you. You look up at the dark sky, your hair moving around with the breeze, the energy of anticipation building all around you. Perhaps you take a moment to breathe in the charged air, before rushing to make sure your garden is secure, your yard tools are put away, your animals are safe inside, and candles are ready in case the power goes out. The first hints of thunder growl in the distance, and you prepare yourself for what’s coming. These are times of pure excitement, when you’re as energized as the stormy atmosphere around you.

This kind of weather has its place in nature, though I do know storms are getting worse and more frequent in our era of climate change. We could do without the record number of severe storms we get more often now. But as I wait for a thunderstorm to arrive, I feel grateful for this point in the late-summer season. There’s no need to rush forward to PSL season — let’s pause and enjoy the moment where we’re at, and be grateful for the current season, which is just as important and beautiful as all the rest. Let’s smell that wonderful summer-rain-smell, and feel that cool mist on our faces.

Bringing it back to the breeze, this past spring at the cottage I made a connection for the first time. While standing on the riverbank, a cold wind whipped my face. “It’s spring,” I thought to myself, “no longer winter. Why is there all this frigid wind?” Then I saw it. With each gust of wind, a flurry of seeds leftover from winter flew by, being carried from the trees and still-sleeping plants to their new homes in further lands. I watched in awe as the seeds flew like fairies, all through the woods and across the river, getting ready to bring new life in warmer days. Everything clicked in that moment — all this icy wind that’s common in March and April and that I had such disdain for serves a purpose. To carry the overwintering seeds to new places to continue the cycle of life. This wind isn’t an inconvenience — it needs to occur to ensure there’s new life in the coming years.

Now, in September, I’m seeing the winds begin again. And with them, different seeds get carried away to new homes. I was standing in the backyard of the apartment on a breezy afternoon and again, experienced a gift of a show. Seeds from a field of backyard American burnweed slowly let go of their plants and floated by. Graceful and delicate, the white puffs danced through the yard, around my body, and off into the distance. The magic of nature and her cycles on full display again. As we move away from summer and towards autumn the plants continue their yearly rituals, now preparing for the end of their life cycle by dropping their seeds for the next year. And then it will begin again.

But, as I said earlier, this season is just beginning. There’s still plenty of late-summer energy left! I still feel it and embrace it on my walks. A new round of wildflowers are appearing — while the wild roses and blackberry blooms are gone, now a walk through the cottage woods is filled with ironweed, goldenrod, clematis, and, most abundantly, jewelweed! All native plants, and I’m overjoyed to see so many natives thriving in our backyard woods! The forest is an array of diverse colors and shapes, and so many butterflies and bees dance around them. Though I’ve been exploring the cottage woods for a few summers now, I’m always finding and learning something new. Watching the cycle of changing wildflowers this summer revealed that Mother Nature provides different wildflowers each month to ensure that the pollinators have a continuous source of food, even as the seasons and weather change. There are new flowers at different times for different purposes and types of pollinators. Mother Nature always has a new lesson to teach us, even when we think we’ve discovered it all!

So as the seasons start to shift, I hope you take a moment to savor the now. Take note of the wildflowers still in bloom. Dance in the rain and feel it on your face. Breathe in the wind and watch the seeds blow. Embrace the moment. See you in the Fall.

But before you log off, check out some of these other late-summer happenings:

It’s back-to-school season, and while I don’t go to school anymore, I’m still feeling the itch to learn something new. So, I enrolled in a few online herbalism courses! I was already enrolled in the Herbal Academy’s Foraging course but hadn’t started the lessons yet, and I also just enrolled in their Making Herbal Preparations 101 course. As the days get shorter and the nights colder, I’m looking forward to brewing a cup of tea, getting cozy, and opening my laptop to learn new things about herbs, and craft some of my own herbal concoctions.
As I mentioned I’d do in last month’s post, I baked a blackberry pie with our foraged wild blackberries from the cottage woods! I used the Marionberry Chocolate Thyme Pie recipe in Spencre McGowan’s cookbook, Forest & Home, but substituted the blackberries in place of the marionberries. The recipe was so quick and easy, and the pie was delicious! Sweet yet earthy, with the right ratio of chocolate to berry. There’s something amazingly special about baking with wild food that was growing in your own backyard. I really felt connected to the pie while baking it, through the connection I had with the berries and the land that so graciously gifted them to us. I watched these wild blackberries grow throughout the season, and watched the woods provide for them for years. That makes the pie taste even better.
Speaking of foraging, my latest article in The Black River Journal was published recently: “Summer Foraging and Mushroom Sporing.” This is my favorite article I’ve worked on yet! Back in April, I got to watch Dan from The Foraged Feast and his team “plant” shiitake mushrooms, and even got to help a little with the fascinating process. We also talked about permaculture and foraging, and how these activities can open our eyes to the natural world around us, which in turn encourages us to care for and build a relationship with nature. Give it a read when you get a chance, I guarantee you’ll find it awesome and fun!
As we’re in the midst of harvest season, parts of the garden continue to thrive, while other parts…not so much. The balcony garden has bolted and dried up, so I harvested and dried a bunch of sage and then cleaned up the garden for the season. Most of the plants were removed, though I kept the chives and sage for next year. I think in a week or so I’ll plant more lettuce and spinach on the balcony. At the community garden, our tomatoes and peppers are at their peak! It seems like every few days I’m harvesting several handfuls of grape tomatoes, along with several peppers. This is my first year having luck with peppers before creatures eat them, and I’m taking full advantage of it! We’re also still getting zucchini, though I had to pull the bean plants, as they were infested with some kind of caterpillar. The chamomile is slowing down and getting ready to go to seed, but the rosemary and sage are also still going strong.

Speaking of tomatoes, my coworker gifted me some lovely homegrown tomatoes from her own garden and explained to me how to make a quick sauce with them! Following her advice, I blended the tomatoes with garlic and herbs from my garden (I chose rosemary and oregano), and then reduced them on the stove, adding parmesan to thicken it. It was a delicious sauce, and so quick and easy, too!