The world is turning bare in the sunlight. A few days ago the temperature fell below freezing, and the hillsides changed shape overnight. In the last wave of brightness, the maples have become silver and spare and the oaks are turning from green to copper. Rain water caught in a tarp forms membrane thin rimes of ice.
I came out early to pick up my last Caretaker farm share of the year, sweet potatoes, delicata squash, red onion. In sweater and coat it was warm enough still to sit in the wooden swing chair at the top of the fields. That chair holds a sense of rest and sunlight. It’s tall enough to lean your head back against the slats, and it rocks slightly like a dinghy in a cove.
Winged figures sit side by side on a jack-o-lantern in the gardens at Naumkeag.
Halloween is about transition time — I’ve seen that thought more than once. In the shift from warm to cold, these few days become a time to feel the world more closely.
This year I find myself looking for sense memories. I want to remember how it feels to look toward a winter rest with a store of energy and sweetness from the summer. That may be as simple as a cup of cider or tea made from herbs that grew here, or a local ginger cookie, or a beeswax candle that burns with a scent of honey.
Remember how it feels to put on a mask because it makes you feel adventurous? Remember the dress-up fun of bright clothing and paint on the skin because you feel at home in your own skin — the way it feels to gather in energy with the confidence of an actor walking onstage … Remember how it feels to walk at night fearlessly, come up to any neighbor’s door and knock and know they will open? …
Walking by candlelight
Grape vines gleam with fall lights in the dark on the path down the hill at Naumkeag.
The historic house glows in orange light at the pukpkin walk at Naumkeag.
A pumpkin hangs in a tree, carved with a luna moth in flight, at the Naumkeag Pumpkin Walk.
A dragon arcs across a jack-o-lantern at the Naumkeag Pumpkin Walk.
A George Rickey sculpture glows amber orange at the Naumkeag Pumpkin Walk.
Pumpkins glow with carved leaves at the Naumkeag Pumpkin Walk.
A jack-o-lantern glows with a flower-petalled for skeleton Dia de Los Muertos at the Naumkeag pumpkin show.
Events coming up …
Find more art and performance, outdoors and food in the BTW events calendar.
