Wolf saw a bear today out at the dirt bike track. It’s the second bear he’s seen in the last week or two. I haven’t seen any.

(Life just isn’t fair.)

The bears seem to be attracted to the blackberries, the same ones that I crave. The same ones that Jaxsun (suddenly) enjoys. Is it because blackberries represent the end of summer? Another turn of the Wheel?

It’s getting very fall-like here in Central New Hampshire.

But it didn’t stop Jaxsun from taking a swim in Needle Brook down in Old Hill.

It’s autumn in Central New Hampshire.

I can so totally see why the Celts believed Lammas was the first day of fall. I’ve been in denial about the weather change but now I can’t help but notice. This morning I got up not because my alarm went off (it did) but because it was so cold in bed after Wolf removed his warm and furry body that I was shivering. No more sleeping naked for me!

Jaxsun and I took morning walk together and I had to put on a sweatshirt and my boots, not a tshirt and sneakers. I could see my breath and his. Sun is just starting to weaken and lose his luster. There are less birds making noise in the morning. I see more prints in the dirt telling me that Earth’s critters are moving around more than just a few weeks ago. The bugs are less annoying than before. Temps are dropping into the 40s at night.

Yep, it’s autumn in Central New Hampshire.

Today is Lughnassdh (said ‘loo-ahg-noo’), celebration of the harvest. It’s hot and humid here in Central New Hampshire today and my garden is doing pretty well. Wolf and I will be going to the Concord UU tonight to celebrate with ritual, food, and song. I am making a pasta salad for tonights dinner using ingredients that will come from today’s Farmer’s Market in Franklin. The only non local stuff will be the pasta, oil, olives, and artichoke hearts. Everything else will be from the surrounding area.

Mother Earth’s fertility will be eaten tonight by millions of Pagans around the world. We will honor her bounty with fires, songs, rituals, trances, chants, and meditation. We will connect with her life force and be nourished by the fruits from her womb. We will be grateful for her life sustaining abilities and will apologize to her for the ongoing rape of her flesh by corporations and governments more concerned with profit over sustainability. Wolf and I will continue to plod along, attempting to make changes to protect Our Mother from the evils of capitalism, all the while love Our Mother as she should be loved. Honoring her as she should be honored through tasting her food and accepting her nourishment into our bodies without the help of chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.

Thank you Mother Earth for life abundant. I hear your birds chirping outside my window, feel your heat and humidity, hear your voice in the wind, taste your love in red peppers. Tonight I will sleep wrapped in your abundance.