November Gardening Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

Typical Weather for Our Area

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens

The Spirit of Gardening

Removing dead and non-productive summer vegetable crops.
Turn in composted steer manure and compost into the cleared vegetable garden.
Ordering from seed and garden catalogs.
Planting potted trees and shrubs.
Putting winter crops in the ground and harvesting greens: onions, lettuce, radishes, garlic, beets, chard, cabbage.
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Planting bulbs.
Prune and mulch dormant perennials.
Prune fruit trees.
Storing and repairing tools.
Cleaning, storing, repairing and removing gasoline from equipment.
Fertilize with 20-9-9 or 16-16-16.
Trees without leaves need little or no watering.
Reduce or eliminate watering, watering as needed, depending upon rainfall, normally 3.1 inches in November.
Picking pumpkins, squash, colored corn, and other crops for Thanksgiving decorations.
Pruning grape vines.
Picking and storing peppers.
Raking leaves and add to compost piles and mulch layers.
Lawn care: aerate soil and fertilize.
Digging holes and post holes in cooler weather.
Burning dead trees and shrubs in burn pile.
Watering potted plants.
Reading gardening books and catalogs. 

November: Quotes, Lore, Poems

Gardening Essentials


"As the biocentric view suggests, the garden prospers when control is balanced by equal measures of humility and benevolence. A balance is struck. Control, servitude, respect, imagination, pragmatism, an ecological conscience, compliance, and a certain measure of mysticism and altruism all meld together to provide nurturance. Try to separate the various aspects into their constituent parts - grant any one of them the status of fundamental gardening definition and one soon skews the entire process. Put them back together again in the service of the two-way street called nurturance, and we express the state of grace called gardening."
- Jim Nollman, Why We Garden: Cultivating a Sense of Place, 1994


"Why do plants have such a positive impact on us?
There are a number of reasons, including:
They have a predictable cycle of life that provides comfort in our time of rapid change.
They are responsive but non-threatening.
They form no opinions or judgments about their caregivers.
They soften our man-made environment.
They enable us to change or improve our environment.
They promote relaxation and tranquility."
- Gardening - Therapy for Mind, Body and Soul, Proxima Health System, Atlanta

Yurt Camping at Devil's Lake State Park

 

Yurt Camping in Lincoln City, Oregon, from 9/22-9/25.

Devil's Lake State Recreation Area

Lincoln City

Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Chinook Winds Casino and Hotel

Depoe Bay OR

Yurt Camping Information

Mo's Restaurant in Siletz Bay

Robert's Bookstores

Prehistoric: Rocks and Fossils Store

My Photographs

Yurt 35C

Mo's Restaurant

Clams and Oyster Shooter

Photographs from the Internet

Equal Dark and Equal Light

We Druid/Taoists prepare for the upcoming Autumnal Equinox celebration, also called Mabon, Autumn Moon Festival, Alban Elfed, Harvest Home Festival, Apple Feast, etc.   

The Moon Festival, Zhong Qiu Jie, a very popular Chinese autumn festival, is held when there is a full moon at this time of the year.   


"Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!"
-   Night An'Fey, Transformation of Energy

   

"The last of Summer is Delight --
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review --
Enchantment's Syndicate.
To meet it -- nameless as it is --
Without celestial Mail --
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil."
-   Emily Dickinson, The Last of Summer is Delight 

  

September: Quotes, Poems, Lore

"Great Goddess, Mistress of cats,
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
Fulfill my greatest needs, O glorious one.
Teach me the magic I need.
Give me a glimpse of your deep wisdom.
Teach me in dreams. Enrich my life.
O Lady, you are Golden-Tears of Asgard
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
You are the Shape-shifter, the Sayer,
The Independent One.
Give me the strength and the magic I need."
-  Prayers to Freyja   

General Preparations for Mabon 

We gather dry corn stalks and make background arrangements and corn dollys; collect, dry and display all kinds of gourds and squash; we cut long grape vines and tie into circular forms for wheel symbols; we cut fire wood for a outdoor pre-dawn campfire in our sacred circle garden; we do reading in literature relevant to the Mabon seasonal theme; we make special meals with the vegetables and fruits of the season; we make moon cakes with rice.  We tend to do pre-dawn fireplace celebrations in the summer because it is too hot in the evening. 
 

Autumn Equinox Celebration Preparations: Mabon

Repost from 2008:

We Druid/Taoists prepare for the upcoming Autumnal Equinox celebration, also called Mabon, Autumn Moon Festival, Alban Elfed, Harvest Home Festival, Apple Feast, etc.

“Mabon, or Autumn Equinox, is named for the Welsh God of the Harvest, Mabon ap Modron (“divine son of the divine mother).  As told in the Mabinogion, Mabon was stolen from his mother three nights after his birth, and swelt in Annwfn (the Underworld) until he was rescued by Culhwch.  Because of his time in the Underworld, Mabon stayed a young man forever, and was equated with the Roman Apollo.  He is the Green Man whose blood is an intoxicating beverage; Dionysos (wine), Osiris (beer), and John Barleycorn (whiskey).  The bay tree is sacred to Mabon as its magickal action is preservation, a time-honored harvest occupation.  Also known as the Harvest Home, Kirn Feast, Mell Day, Ingathering, and Harvest’s Height, this festival commemorates the ritual sacrifice of the God and his descent into the Underworld, and the brewer’s art that produces the sacrament of this season.  In California Wine Country, where we live, it is the festival of the Grape Harvest.  Whiskey, the spirit of the barley, is also readily consumed during this festival.”
-  Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravencraft, Creating Circles and Ceremonies, p. 227

“Your altar is a great place for fruits, such as squash and apples set in an old wooden bowl.  You will also want to add pomegranate, in association with Peresphone.  Decorate your altar with orange, brown and yellow altar cloths and candles.  Arrange colorful autumn leaves and small gourds, nuts, dried corn, seed, acorns, pine cones, etc.  You also might want to add a bowl of water, since autumn is associated with water, emotion, and relationships.”
-  Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravencraft, Creating Circles and Ceremonies, p. 228


Ask yourself these questions in the month of September:
What is your personal harvest from self-improvement resolutions planted last spring?
In what specific and creative ways can you honor the productivity of Mother Earth? 
What is something new that you produced in the last six months?
How can you best celebrate your productive efforts during the year?
How have others helped you to be more creative?
How can you best celebrate the autumnal equinox holiday? 

September: Poems and Quotes

Autumn Equinox, Mabon, Harvest Festival, NeoPagan High Day

 

The Moon Festival, Zhong Qiu Jie, a very popular Chinese autumn festival, occurs when the moon is full in September. 


"Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!"
-   Night An'Fey, Transformation of Energy

   

"The last of Summer is Delight --
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review --
Enchantment's Syndicate.

To meet it -- nameless as it is --
Without celestial Mail --
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil."
-   Emily Dickinson, The Last of Summer is Delight 

  

September: Quotes, Poems, Lore

"Great Goddess, Mistress of cats,
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
Fulfill my greatest needs, O glorious one.
Teach me the magic I need.
Give me a glimpse of your deep wisdom.
Teach me in dreams. Enrich my life.
O Lady, you are Golden-Tears of Asgard
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
You are the Shape-shifter, the Sayer,
The Independent One.
Give me the strength and the magic I need."
-  Prayers to Freyja   

General Preparations for Mabon 

We gather dry corn stalks and make background arrangements and corn dollys; collect, dry and display all kinds of gourds and squash; we cut long grape vines and tie into circular forms for wheel symbols; we cut fire wood for a outdoor pre-dawn campfire in our sacred circle garden; we do reading in literature relevant to the Mabon seasonal theme; we make special meals with the vegetables and fruits of the season; we make moon cakes with rice.  We tend to do pre-dawn fireplace celebrations in the summer because it is too hot in the evening. 
 

Autumn in Southwester Washington State

We drove home from Twin Harbors State Park today.  We drove through Grayland Beach, Tokeland, Raymong, Pe Ell, Vader, Longview, and Woodland.  November 15, 2023.

When we got home we showered, clean up, and cleaned razor clams for storage.

Dramatic fall colors everywhere!!

For many photographs and more information go to: Four Days in Grayland by Michael P. Garofalo.

The Colors of November

The autumn colors are very dramatic in Vancouver, Clark County, Washington.  The four maples in our back yard are quite colorful at present.

Autumn: Poetry, Sayings, Lore, Quotations

The Spirit of Gardening

"Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We'll smell smoke then, and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure."
- Thomas Wolfe


"Lo! sweeten’d with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All its allotted length of days
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil."
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Lotus-Eaters"

I walk with my dog, Bruno, for 40 to 60 minutes in our neighborhood.  Here are a few photographs of our walking environment.  

Walking on a Drizzling Morning

My dog, Bruno, and I walk every morning for 45 to 60 minutes.  We walk in our suburban neighborhood in Vancouver, Washington State. The autumn season can bring cool morning temperatures between 45F to 55F, overcast skies, fog, dampness, and rain.  We wear warm clothes and try to stay dry. 

I began my daily morning walks in 1998.

"I was the world in which I walked."
-   Wallace Stevens, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon

"Allow walking to occupy a place of stature equal with all the other important activities in your life. As difficult as that might seem, here's how to do it. Make it a practice. That's right. Turn your walking into a vehicle for personal growth as well as for fitness. This will add a higher level of integrity and intention to your approach because you will find that it is a way to deepen and upgrade your relationship to your body. Instead of merely giving your legs a good workout, you'll be practicing to relax more, to breathe better, to expand your vision, to open up your range of motion, to increase your energy, to feel and sense your body. The list is exciting - and endless. With all of this to look forward to, your walking program will take its place alongside everything in your life you value most, and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to schedule time for something you really love to do."
- Katherine Dreyer, Chi Walking, p. 56

 

Chi Walking: The Find Mindful Steps for Lifelong Health and Energy. By Danny Dreyer and Katherine Dreyer. New York, Simon and Shuster, Fireside Books, 2006. Index, 258 pages. ISBN: 0743267206.


"Walking I am unbound, and find that precious unity of life and imagination, that silent outgoing self, which is so easy to loose, but which a high moments seems to start up again from the deepest rhythms of my own body. How often have I had this longing for an infinite walk - of going unimpeded, until the movement of my body as I walk fell into the flight of streets under my feet - until I in my body and the world in its skin of earth were blended into a single act of knowing."
- Alfred Kazin, The Open Street

"If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are."- Tung-Shan

 

     "Walking meditation means to enjoy walking without any intention to arrive. We don't need to arrive anywhere. We just walk. We enjoy walking. That means walking is already stopping, and that needs some training. Usually in our daily life we walk because we want to go somewhere. Walking is only a means to an end, and that is why we do not enjoy every step we take. Walking meditation is different. Walking is only for walking. You enjoy every step you take. So this is a kind of revolution in walking. You allow yourself to enjoy every step you take.
     The Zen master Ling Chi said that "the miracle is not to walk on burning charcoal or in the thin air or on the water; the miracle is just to walk on earth." You breathe in. You become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still alive and you are walking on this beautiful planet. That is already performing a miracle. The greatest of all miracles is to be alive. We have to awaken ourselves to the truth that we are here, alive. We are here making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already performing a miracle. But we have to be here in order for the miracle to be possible. We have to bring ourselves back to the here and the now."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Resting in the River

 

The Ways of Walking: Quotations, Facts, Methods, Spirituality, Meditative

• Ways of Walking
• Walking Meditation
• Walking Quotations
• Walking Bibliography
• Circle Walking: Bagua
• Walking the Labyrinth
• Garden Walking
• Walking Qigong
• Walking Staff   

Autumn Garden Mosaic

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting
and autumn a mosaic of them all."
-   Stanley Horowitz

"There is a harmony
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,
Which through the summer is not heard or seen,
As if it could not be, as if it had not been!"
-   Percy Bysshe Shelley  

"The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly
changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools."
-   Henry Beston, Northern Farm

Autumn- Quotes, Sayings, Lore

November - Quotes, Sayings, Lore  

39F degrees this morning, clear, blue skies, needing rain and snow.  Too cold for me to walk early in the morning, I wait till about 10 am to do so.  I've been fighting a chest cold, so I take extra care to stay warm and not over exert myself.  

We have been improving our winter vegetable garden.  We set up a cold frame on Friday and moved the frost tender plants inside. 

Here are a few photos that Karen took in our back yard.

 

October Lore

 "Leaves fall,
the days grow cold.
The Goddess pulls her mantle of Earth around Her
as You, O Great Sun God, sail toward the West
to the land of eternal enchantment,
wrapped in the coolness of night.

Fruits ripen,
seeds drip,
the hours of day and night are balanced."
-   Mabon Sabbat and Lore    

"A year of beauty. A year of plenty.
A year of planting. A year of harvest.
A year of forests. A year of healing.
A year of vision. A year of passion.
A year of rebirth.

This year may we renew the earth.
This year may we renew the earth.

Let it begin with each step we take.
And let it begin with each change we make.
And let it begin with each chain we break.
And let it begin every time we awake."
-  Starhwak, Reclaiming Samhain

Halloween (Samhain): Bibliography, Quotes, Poems, Links, Lore
October 31, 2020

Autumn Equinox Celebration

Repost from 9/23/2011!

The Autumn Equinox occurs today, Friday, September 23, at 2:05 am (PDT).  Today is the first day of the Fall season.  In Red Bluff, California we are expecting a low today of 63F and a high of 102F.  

Today is one of the Eight High Days for celebration or feasting by Neopagans around the world, and the day is variously named: Welsh Mabon, Late Summer Harvest Feast, Autumnal Equinox, Alban Elfed, Harvest Home, Second Harvest Festival, Cornucopia, Feast of Avalon, Festival of Dionysus, Harvest Tide, Witch's Thanksgiving, Night of the Hunter, Apple Festival, High Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone, September 21st - 23rd, September Celebrations, NeoPagan Thanksgiving, Winter Finding (Teutonic), Equinozio di Autunno (Strega), Wine Festival, Winter Nights, Zhong Qiu Jie (Moon Festival).  Check out my webpage on the subject of Mabon.  

Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon.   By Ellen Dugan.  Woodbury, Minnesota, Llewellyn Pubs., 2005.  Bibliography, index, 208 pages.  ISBN: 0738706248.  VSCL.  A very informative book on the subject.  

This morning, at 5:30 am, I lit a fire our Sacred Circle Garden.  I sipped Irish coffee (a tip of the hat to John Barleycorn's gift to us).  I meditated.  I opened the Circle and called the Quarters, made some offerings, and called on spirits for healing support.  The element of Water, Autumn, aging, intuition, Demeter, waning of the year, the Crone, feelings and emotions were the themes.  After sunrise, I read Druid and Taoist books and scriptures, and made some notes.  I did my daily Tarot reading.  I enjoyed playing Taijiquan and Qigong.  I listened to an MP3 recording from the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids during the day.  

I am a NeoPagan and borrow from modern Druid and ancient Taoist practices, legends and ideas to acknowledge and celebrate our many gifts from the Tao, Mother Earth, the Goddesses/Gods, our Ancestors, and the Nature Spirits.  I am mostly a solitary Druid/Taoist.  My temple is my home garden.  I have ample reasons for gratitude, respect, reverence, awe, and inspiration.  What I believe has more to do with mysticism, creativity, vitality, and beauty than any fixed set of religious doctrines or dogmas. 

 

Our Gushen Grove Sacred Circle Garden is used for outdoor fireplace activities, relaxing during the cooler hours of the day, and for meditation and rituals.  The blue pole, set in the west side of the garden, was the place for a Mabon altar.  The blue ceramic pot in front of the blue pole is filled to the brim with water.

September Gardening Chores

September Gardening Chores


In Red Bluff, California:

Watering daily when temperatures over 90F.  
Removing dead and non-productive vegetable crops. 
Apply manure and compost to clay soils.  
Planting crops for late autumn harvest:  cabbages, kale, radishes, peas, fennel, cauliflower, lettuce, swiss chard, onions, leeks, Chinese peas, and endive.
Drying peppers and squash.
Start new strawberry beds. 
Dig up and divide garlic, perennials, iris, daylilies,  bulbs and onions.
Keep watering properly even as the weather begins to cool. 
Clean up all dead fruit. 
Fruit trees fed and sprayed with tonics.
Seed lawns with rye grass for winter color. 
Remove any dead shrubs or trees and place in large burn pile. 
Dig holes for planting trees and shrubs; plant in ground starting November 1st.
Purchase potted trees and shrubs for planting in autumn. 
Continue to mulch trees and shrubs.
Raking fallen leaves and add to compost pile.
Purchase bulbs from nurseries. 
Feed lawn with slow release fertilizer.
Remove spent blooms from roses.
Weed vegetables and shrubs, mow lawns.
Start to prepare sheds, tools, and equipment for Winter weather.
Repair roofs.  

September: Quotes, Poems, Seasonal Sayings

Autumnal Equinox Celebration


"I don't wanna say goodbye for the summer
Knowing the love we'll miss
Oh let us make a pledge to meet in September
And seal it with a kiss
Guess it's gonna be a cold lonely summer
But I'll fill the emptiness
I'll send you all my love every day in a letter
Sealed with a kiss."
-  Bobby Vinton 

"Harvest home, harvest home!
We've plowed, we've sowed
We've reaped, we've mowed
And brought safe home
Every load."
-  Harvest Home Song    

May you enjoy your Labor Day in America!!   

Bundling Up in December

The December weather patterns are now upon us in Vancouver, Washington.  The mid-morning temperature today in Vancouver is 40F, with light intermittent rain.  

It was also cold and raining in December to February in Red Bluff, California.  

December     Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore, Gardening Chores

We tried to reduce electrical and propane bills in Red Bluff, and electrical bills in Vancouver, by keeping the indoor temperature low.  We don't heat much at night.  

We dress accordingly to stay comfortable indoors.  Layered clothing, hat, scarf, and sometimes gloves are often used indoors.    

When reading, I bundle up with blankets or afghans.  

Here I am in 2012, in my study, bundled up in December.

Surf Sounds Through Shore Pines

 

Enjoyed the fish and chips from Merino's Seafood Market in Westport.
Got books from the Westport Timberland Library.
Walked the docks of Westport.  
Relaxed at my picnic day campsite at Grayland Beach.
Beachcombing, walking, listening, looking.

Four Days in Grayland

Parts I - IV

By Michael P. Garofalo