One
last cut of hay, apples fall from tired trees. Leaves color and drop, a hard
frost kills. The sun goes, the cows come in, a hard rain falls.
Scholars
say in northern Europe, in medieval times, in some rural communities, humans
hibernated. Harvests were
thin, there was no light, the bleakness could not be cut with small wood fires. So people slept, waking maybe once or twice a day to gnaw on some stale
bread or sip thin soup. The darkness, the cold, the death outside, was all too much
to wake for.
We
do not hibernate in Vermont as fall fades. Yes, we drive to work in the dark and drive
home in the dark and pack on some insulating layers as the cold descends. We
sit in the kitchen in the late afternoon and wonder if it is bedtime. We eat
more. A lot more.
