Thoughts of hibernation.

"The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many."- Oliver Wendell Holmes

While riding into town I saw the first leaves starting to change color.Then I noticed them lying on the side of the road.A couple of days later while I was standing in the garden, I wanted to rip everything out and go inside. I first wrote this off as a case of ADD on my part. Then yesterday while at spinning Cyndy mentioned that she wanted to be done with her garden! I was happy to learn it was not just me.

However this made me wonder if there is some internal clock for humans also. The animals all know when to migrate, breed and gorge themselves prior to hibernation. So do we also know when it is time to just wrap it up and stay inside? Do we rely more on outward signals or listen to the internal clock ticking away? The garden is still producing, flowers are still blooming.The blackberries still need picking and the elderberries are not even ripe. And let us not forget the apples and pears. I need to make apple butter, applesauce, apple cider, pear honey, elderberry jelly and blackberry cordial. I have to gather the black walnuts and butternuts.I still need to take 2 steer, 3 pigs, 40 chickens and 2 turkeys to the butcher. I also have to shear 6 sheep and an angora goat. It is so not the time to go inside yet!

The weatherman was discussing "meteorological autumn" which starts on September 1. I think my body is more in tune with this than the astronomical seasons. But what is the trigger? Is it waking up to 43 degrees in August? Is it that now the fog doesn't leave the valley until 10 or so? Is it the changing of the leaves? Is it the first day of school looming in the future? Is it knowing that Endless Mountain Fiber Festival , where Grace and Cyndy are vendors, is only 2 weeks away or that Rhinebeck is only 6 weeks away? What is it that makes me want to go inside, knit socks, gloves and hats? What clock sits and ticks while I waste a day behind a spinning wheel? I will probably never know the answer. But I do know that finishing my tasks before I go hibernate is getting harder and harder and is done with less enthusiasm.