NEWS FROM THE HILLS
Dear Cousin,
These days are here, with a capricious wind blowing yellow and brown leaves skyward. The rose of Sharon bush stands naked and forlorn, with its former covering of leaves in a pile around the trunk. Most of the poplars have also shed their leaves, and their bare branches are open to the wind.
The maple is half clothed with reddish-orange leaves remaining on one side, and the rest spread in a brown carpet on the ground. The forest floor is covered now with a thick mat of brown leaves, and more are falling.
It has been drizzling rain this morning, and the wind is gusting harder. Rain comes in a sweeping wave over the hills, and leaves dance madly through the air. It seems to be raining leaves; they are whirling and twirling, drifting and floating everywhere.
There is a sharp edge to the wind that foretells of colder weather to come. Just as it strips the trees of their covering of leaves, it is chasing away the last vestige of warm weather. Unless we are blessed with a few days of Indian summer, warm days will probably be scarce.
The leaves were somewhat of a disappointment this fall. After a summer of wet weather, we were expecting an autumn filled with the splendor of multicolored leaves and unmatched scenery. The woods are still beautiful, but the overall colors seem to be brown tones, with some bronze, copper, yellow and russet interspersed. The brilliant and glowing scarlet and red colors are scarce, although there is an occasional maple or dogwood clothed in red tones.
The leaves are falling so fast, too. I have heard several folks comment they had never seen the leaves turn so quickly, or fall so fast. It seemed that in a couple of days they had changed from green to brown, with scarcely a whisper in between.
The wind howled through the treetops all night long, and brought not only more fallen leaves, but also a power failure. I love to reminisce about the former days, and write about how we used to live, but when it comes right down to doing without modern conveniences, it is another story.
We were expecting company, a distant cousin from California, and her sister and husband from Florida. Breakfast was barely over and the power went off. We have our own water supply, and when there’s no power, we are without water. What to do?
Well, we went back to the old way of life. I went to the cellar and dug out two zinc dishpans, filled a bucket from son Kevin’s city water spigot, and heated the water on the stove. We have a gas range that we can use without power, but the oven won’t work. OK, we’ll heat the breakfast biscuits in the microwave oven (scratch that!) — we’ll have cold biscuits. The slow cooker is out of the question, and we can’t use the oven for the pot roast.
Daughter Patty has power, so we transport the slow cooker and roast to her house. Now for the potatoes, peeled and placed in a cooker. Uh-oh, the mixer won’t work. So it’s back to the old hand masher we used all the time I was growing up. Grab a bag of frozen corn and pop it in the microwave oven — take it back out and place in a saucepan.
Skip the coffee — the coffee maker won’t work either. Cole slaw was on the menu, but the food processor is out also. Tossed salad is substituted. At least the canned green beans are fixed on top of the stove.
At last the meal is ready. I hope they like lumpy mashed potatoes and cold biscuits (how many times in a day do we use the microwave!) Just as we finish eating, the power comes back on. We take all these things for granted until we have to do without them. I just thank the Lord fervently for the blessing of modern conveniences.
Love,
Cousin Alyce Faye
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