Autumn Forging

I would say that early autumn is my favorite time for forging.  The heat is past and the rush of summer slows a bit.  There are a lot of chores to be done in the ever shortening daylight hours but it is good to anticipate the day the work will be done and we will be ready for winter.  All the while I can enjoy the changing leaf color, the sequence of migrating species and the taste or ripe persimmons and pawpaws and, in some years, black walnuts too.

I get up early and as the sunlight appears across the landscape, from my writing room window I can see wheat greening across the creek in the field extending north to the river.  About 0800 I start looking for the whitetails moving west along the creek tree line heading for their bedding ground.  I usually see them just as the suns rays begin hitting the ground north of the creek.

A couple of weeks ago it was a pleasure to hear my feet shuffling through the ankle deep leaves on the way to the studio.  Now we have cleared the leaves and with the bare trees it is beginning to look like winter.

The sky was filled with migrating birds a month ago but now it is also bare except for an occasional goose or contrail.

I checked the weather forecast and it looks like today will be the last shirt-sleeve day of 2013.  The best forging weather for me is when I can have the doors open and look out and see interesting sights outdoors.  For the next five months the doors will be closed and I’ll be dreaming about the first signs of Spring.

Persimmons against the November sky.

Carhartt Shirts and Fried Green Tomatoes

It’s fall. Every creature is looking for winter quarters. I ran a blacksnake out of the studio a few days ago. The monarch butterflies are gone. Tree frogs have gathered near the creek. The turkey vulture and herring gulls migrations have passed through and we’ve had one light frost now. It came on about the expected date and nipped the tender plants. I went out at dusk in the windy chill and picked the green tomatoes. It was a poor garden year for us with about thirty days over 100º and very little rain so there was only enough for a couple of servings of fried green tomatoes. I was worried that this might be the first year in my life without tasting them. Betty fixed them just right and they were great.

I’m pretty tolerant of cold and probably only put on a coat a half dozen times a winter but I like sweaters, jackets and my Carhartt sandstone twill long sleeve work shirts. I have several and they are well worn and getting faded and one has a big elbow patch but they are comfort clothes as sure as fried green tomatoes are comfort food.

I love autumn and today I paid attention to the beautiful colors in the sugar maples, the Virginia creeper and the poison ivy vines. Some ripe persimmons are dropping now and, while the crop is sparse this year, the flavor is wonderful.

It’s perfect forging weather and I treasure every day of it.

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