The Robber Birds are back, swooping in from the forest to snatch summer away from us again. Their snowy plumage is merely a foreshadowing flashing over the forest where yellow and orange are beginning to creep up into the deciduous evergreens (a true-life oxymoron), taking their cues from the final blush of the heavy-hanging apples.

The hummingbirds have been gone three weeks now, with two straggling female Broadtails the last to leave. For a week or more those noble-necked sisters had the entire clearing and three feeders to themselves. They reminded me of swans come to take a dip in the lake at a summer camp after the rumble of the last busses has faded and the canoes have all been locked away; soaking in the sudden, sublime solitude under the slant light of a waning summer.

Dawn to dusk they enjoyed the vacated nesting grounds, waving their tails dramatically up and down at me as if to bid me a long and reluctant farewell. Then one day, without warning, they were gone and almost instantly replaced with the darting clusters of Pine Siskins. Goldilocks and I removed the glass feeders, replaced them with the wooden cabin-like ones, and filled the river rock bird bath below.

In the early, golden mornings we are enjoying our poolside view of the little mountain finch swim team. In the background, like a mural incarnate, Mountain Bluebirds stroke the horizon in royal, velvet color as the enormous, duck-sized Pileated Woodpeckers ascend the tree trunks below, tapping out their breakfast of beetles in an anthem to autumn that echoes rapturously through the hollowing woods.

It’s easy to see that Autumn wears the golden crown of seasons in mountainous Montana. Sadly, though, crowns are uncertain, tottery things that tend to fall. I wait at the foot of the throne as it is festooned in gold and scarlet for the queen’s jubilee, and I hold my breath for fear that any moment the astounding bounty set out in the banquet hall could be dashed to bits by a steel-cold attack from some Trojan horse or other.

Everything around me feasts and dances in merry ignorance. Nothing seems to understand that every sunset, gleaming through the picture windows, could bring with it a muzzle for the buzzing, a harness for the hopping, a whip for the warmth, a fetter for the flitting, and a hood for the hallowed hues of Autumn’s reign.

So, hold your breath with me, my friend. Come walk with me amongst the gold and crimson while it glows. Wherever you can get out to behold it, just go! Let’s fill our eyes and mouths and ears and lungs with as much color and sweetness and mystery and vitality as they can possibly hold. Let’s store it all up in little glass jars and line them up in our winter storehouses for the rainy, snowy, dreary, and dark days ahead. For you’ve heard the gone-by saying that “these are the gay, old times”? Well, “these are the golden times” dear friends. Let’s be sure to preserve their memory alongside our pickles, salsa, and jams.

---

Everything We Did Our Fourth Summer on the Homestead

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1

Ok, it hasn’t all been golden and glowing. In fact, for a little dose of reality following all that poetic painting I so love to take a whack at, I’ve been nursing a persnickety turn of radial tunnel syndrome in my right arm and hand this summer. Apparently, all this planting and weeding and pulling and chopping and hacking of homestead life can really take a toll. In other words, it’s not all been sunsets and rainbows. I’ve been rationing out the work of my hands these past few weeks, and to that end, I will now let the pictures of our summer speak the rest of this post for me and save my wrist strength for making bruschetta garlic toast for dinner. I think my family will approve this message.

PSSST!! If you are reading this in an email browser, click the post title above so that the photos don’t drop out from under you like the summer! 😆

Harvested & Hauled

Everything we grew in the 2025 season, 100% from seed, bulbs, and bareroot (trees & berry bushes):

• ALLIUMS: garlic, onions, shallots, leeks
• BERRIES: raspberries, strawberries, blueberry babies, gooseberries, currants, mulberries
• BRASSICAS: brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts
• CURCUBITS: pie pumpkins, butternut squash, cucumber
• FLOWERS (all sorts including three extra wild, wildflower meadows)
• FRUIT: apples, peaches, nectarines,
• GREENS: lettuce, green spinach, red spinach, chard, kale
• HERBS: mint, lavender, echinacea, calendula, chamomile, parsley, chives, cilantro, rosemary, sage, thyme, dill
• NIGHTSHADES: tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, eggplant
• OTHER: fennel, rhubarb, asparagus
• PODS: green beans, peas
• ROOTS: carrots, beets, radishes

Skill Schooled

Get the scoop on all the different hand skill activities we like to practice with our kids here: Skill Schooling

Made a Spot of Tea (or three)

Read our tutorial for how we make our year supply of herbal tea here: 🌼Bud to Brew🫖 Herbal Tea Tutorial for sipping pretty all year long!

Watched Otis & the Dandelions Grow

Read about our new Great Pyrenees pup here: 🐾Meet Otis, our newest addition to the homestead!🐕

Smelled the Roses (well, flowers and other beauties anyway)

Thanks for taking a turn with me in the last of the summer splendor! I hope each of you reading this are able to soak up all the sun and warmth you can these upcoming fall days.

Love, ~Candace Arden~