Quotations for Autumn Gardens

It's been a gloomy, wet dreary day today -- quite appropriate for the first day of November but not conducive to getting out and working in the garden.

So instead I've been sitting indoors reading, doing crossword puzzles, and trying to decide what to blog about today. I have mentioned in my blog before that I enjoy collecting quotations, especially those about gardening and the seasons. It seems that other people are far more eloquent than I on the subject, so I'm going to include some in today's post.

Oh how we love pumpkin season. You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right? Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin.... We anxiously anticipate it every year.
~~ Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, October 2010

Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.
~~ Jim Bishop

...I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
~~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, 10th October 1842

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came,—
The Ashes, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The sunshine spread a carpet,
And every thing was grand;
Miss Weather led the dancing;
Professor Wind, the band....
The sight was like a rainbow
New-fallen from the sky....
~~ George Cooper (1840–1927), "October's Party," c.1887

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
~~ Faith Baldwin, American Family

It is a delightful pastime to sit in the pleasant sunshine of autumn, and gazing from this little spot of free earth over such a landscape, let the imagination luxuriate amid the thrilling associations of the scene!
~~ H.T. Tuckerman, "San Marino"

'Tis Autumn! and the short'ning day,
The chilly evening's sober gray,
And winds that hoarser blow;
The fading foliage of the trees,
Which rustles sere in every breeze,
The approach of Winter show.
~~ Bernard Barton, "Stanzas on the Approach of Winter" 1822

Of all the seasons, autumn offers the most to man and requires the least of him.
~~Hal Borland

Just after the death of the flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season,
When nature is all aglow—
Aglow with a mystical spendour
That rivals the brightness of spring,
Aglow with a beauty more tender
Than aught which fair summer could bring....
~~Emeline B. Smith, "Indian Summer"

I walked alone in the depths of Autumn woods;
The ruthless winds had left the maple bare;
The fern was withered, and the sweetbrier's breath
No longer gave its fragrance to the air.
~~Albert Laighton (1829–1887), "In the Woods," c.1859


For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.
~Edwin Way Teale, Autumn Across America



If you're wondering where the lovely animated gifs came from, I found them on a Russian website at http://www.gifprikol.com. And before you ask -- no, I can't read Russian, but since the website provides the code to copy and paste in to your blog, or on Facebook, I'm assuming it's okay to share them, with the appropriate link!!