From The Innkeepers

October 2022 Blog
On Changes and Transitions

October is a month where literally the landscape is changing all around us in a very visual way and on a daily basis. Right now, there are a few trees tinged with red and gold, but nothing like what we will see by mid-month. By month’s end we will have transformed into a landscape of letting go, as most of the trees will have shed their leaves by then. Change is literally in the air and showering down from the sky.

The geese and the cranes and the heron know it is time to let go of living here on our wetlands and head for warmer more suitable waters in points south. Every evening we feel like the lake is our own avian hotel. Flocks of geese from further north come to spend the night. Every morning, honking very loudly, they take off and head for the sky. I pretend they are honking their good-byes to us, even though I know they are most likely deciding on their flight path for the day. If I am outside to observe this phenomenon, I look up to the sky and tell them to have safe travels and a warm winter, and that we look forward to seeing them again next year. Extending hospitality is not just for humans around here.

Change is happening in our kitchen too, as we are in the midst of a seasonal flavor transition. There are a few summer lingering flavors like fresh tomatoes plucked off the vine before the first frost. Or the eggplant and zucchini together with tomatoes and garlic in a marvelous explosion of flavors in ratatouille.
But soon enough these will be gone, having made way for the silky sweetness of various types of squash from acorn to butternut. The last pickings of summer’s plums have made clear the way for the volume and variety of apples that are already arriving from the Amish orchard to Sharon’s kitchen. These are beginning to appear in a variety of dishes from apple sauce, to bread and apple crisps, to fried cinnamon apples atop French Toast. The smell of warm apples baking is one of the sensory pleasures of the fall season.

This time of year, the process of nature’s external changes often find their way inside of us. We too in the fall, harvest the internal seeds of our soul’s plantings from earlier in the year. The winds of fall incline us to wrap ourselves in warmth, and bring us back to ourselves. We breathe in the cooler air of autumn, and we pull inward to conserve the energies of our spirit for the hibernation of the coming months. October is a month of coming home to ourselves, of feeling at home in our lives, putting to rest all we have harvested, knowing it will serve us well in the seasons to come.

Blessings to you as you take the time to savor both the internal and external beauties of month.
May peace accompany your journeys.

Marcia, Pat, and Sharon
Keepers of the Rustic Gate