Fall Reverie

Dull greens and rust-colored trees rise above brown rooftops. A dove settles on the red fire escape. I hear steam rising in the wall heaters. It’s the fall time when I begin to add layers for work at the market. First a sweater and now a jacket and leggings. The customers buy root vegetables to make soup

The air is crisp. The sea off of Cape Cod softly dashed with the sky blue colors of fall, something different than the wild waves of summer.

Off-season Cape Cod is a delightful place. The beaches aren’t crowded. Seniors hang out at the  lighthouses. They offer interesting information like the man who told us the boardwalk in Sandwich was first built to haul bricks from a factory to building sites.

It was warm enough that first morning to have coffee on the upper deck of the Cape Cod-style house. We stopped in Plymouth where we had lobster bisque and clam chowder with a view of the harbor. We walked by the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, and past the Sparrow House built in 1640 to the old grist mill. The last day we toured the crude homes of Plimoth Plantation where there’s an awesome view right down through the village to the sea.

A fun fall memory is of riding the Metro North with friends along the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie where we ate a Japanese lunch and did the Walkway Over the Hudson. The hills were decked in fall beauty though they did not have the brilliant reds of last year.

It’s Bowery Sunday. A group is coming from Fleetwood, PA. The heat of summer is gone from the subway stations, and it will be comfortable to sing and pass out tracts at the Times Square Station.

Our dining table is set with a Thanksgiving runner.  I plan to serve soup to the friends coming for supper.

I’ll close with the benediction of the harvest Psalm:

Psalm 65:4-11 NIV – 4 Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
of your holy temple.
5 You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
6 who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength,
7 who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
8 The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.
9 You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.
10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
11 You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.

Berniece