transition

August and September were so busy on the harvesting front that I barely found time to post pictures of the extravagance in the field. So, you'll have to imagine 600 linear feet of marigolds, 200 feet of sunflowers, 100 feet of zinnias, 200 feet of roses, thousands of ornamental cucumbers hiding beneath the vine... all in the late summer sun. And now, at once, the wind has picked up and the fog lingers later in the valley. Soon, I will start to pull everything down and till it in, making way for the planting of cover crops, tulips, and peonies. In anticipation of all that, I've spent the past few weeks trying to make use of the flowers in every way imaginable before they are gone.

To that end, I spent last Monday in two high school Spanish classrooms, making garlands of marigolds, which are an important part of Day of the Dead celebrations. The teacher, my dear friend Jill, explained that the marigold is often called the flower of death -- la flor de la muerte. One hispanic girl in the class already knew this, as she commented while working on her garland, "it smells like a cemetery in here." That is what is so compelling to me about flowers is that they are associated with some of the biggest events in our lives: birth, marriage, death. Jill showed amazing images of skeleton figures surrounded by marigolds.

I think this Caterina is so cool:

And here is one of the garlands in the classroom.