High summer still reigns, but autumn begins to peep around the corner.

We have new potatoes! The purple vines have begun to die back, a sure sign harvest time approaches. Tomatoes come plentiful and luscious, finding a place in every meal. Michael and I went fishing for the first time this year, perhaps the latest we’ve been out since arriving eight years ago.

“Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were here.”

Meadow mushrooms and puffballs appear as if by magic. We brake for fungus! These we found on the lawn surrounding a local business.

Sautéed, they made an amazing omelette. We also made mushroom pizza, but wolfed it down before I took a photo.

Our neighbor cut and threshed his oats and barley this week. The ripening oats have scented the air of Cheerios. Ripening grapes waft KoolAid memories through the air. Tasseling corn in the heat of August mimics cotton candy. Biking through the rolling hills—better than a rollercoaster at a carnival.

We made a hajj to the Cities to view a textile exhibit at a museum. It is interesting and exciting to visit urban areas.

We have also sojourned to the Cities to deliver the Grand Girl her mother’s childhood bed frame (we did not save the cowboy mattress that came with it when we bought it 30 years ago), and to repair the porch screen door frame at our other daughter’s house. We installed a temporary screen door taken out of our space, making sure that our repair job lasts the winter.

As much fun as it is to have our children and grandchildren within driving distance, we love coming home to find the sweet potatoes have begun to bloom and to take advantage of ripening plums.

We can lull those babies to sleep on our bumpy roads, having them breathe in all the memories they form even before formal memory begins. Their noses will recall these ripe scents of high summer and nascent fall, with our love swirling through it all.