By Diane Lockspeiser

We hadn’t seen blue skies or sunshine for days and it felt miraculous when they appeared. To top it off, I found an exceptionally large (at least 4” across), perfectly shaped and totally non-bird/bug-damaged apple in one of the trees. This also felt like a small delicious miracle as I sat in my garden chair and ate the whole thing. I love Autumn.

It’s fortunate that nature slows down in the Fall. First of all, I’m normally feeling a bit tired from all the work I do during the Summer and start to wistfully look forward to hibernating with a book in my comfy chair by the woodstove fire.

This Autumn was more trying than usual because the very day before I was having a houseful of family (13 adults and 4 small children) for the weekend of our annual Fall family gathering, I managed to injure my left arm.

My son had arrived from California a couple of days earlier. Taking a break from working “from home” on his computer, he invited me out for lunch. I still had lots of work to get done, but decided to take the advice of all the Facebook memes telling us to treasure the time we get to share with loved ones. Besides, I had heard that Dragonfly 55 had good gluten-free wraps. Since I have Celiac disease, I don’t usually get to enjoy more than a salad when eating out, so I rarely eat out.

Having parked further down the road, near the diner, we had just crossed High Street when I couldn’t locate my mask in my much-too-messy purse. I thought maybe I had left it in the car, so I turned around to go back and check. There was a car on High Street but I thought it was parked as the engine had shut off.

As I was halfway across the lane, suddenly the engine started and the car came right at me! I screamed and pushed myself away from the car as the bumper tapped my hip (so, technically, I was hit by a car). Fortunately the woman wasn’t out to get me and stopped. Also fortunately, I wasn’t badly injured – just a pulled muscle and small tear on my bicep, nothing that wouldn’t heal with time and rest.

It turns out that this new type of car turns off instead of idling at a stop, I guess for fuel efficiency. The poor woman looked as shaken as I felt, since she had been watching the cars on Main Street and hadn’t seen me crossing. Hopefully, we’ll both be more careful in the future.

I am so truly grateful for my family who, once they heard I was injured, all joined in to help even more than usual, and pulled off a successful and happy weekend. My son stayed for a few more days to help with what little cleanup was left after the crowd was gone.

So now I’ve been left with slowly getting the gardens ready for Winter, appreciating every move that I can make once more, and every little bit of strength I regain. The weather has cooperated by not hitting us with an early first frost, which would have sped up the needed cleanup. I’m nearing completion, both of chores and healing, so that’s a wrap for this growing season.

Oh! Speaking of wraps, I nearly forgot – the gluten-free wrap was delicious, the servers very caring and kind, and it was really lovely to sit by the stream on the back deck. It’s quite a nice addition to our sweet little town. I’m sorry I hadn’t tried it sooner.

May you all be careful and stay well, and have a very happy holiday season!~