Warm Sun, Warm Friends

Over the Hill Orchards and Winery, 
Lumsden, Saskatchewan

On a patio overlooking 

the Qu’Appelle Valley 

in the warm sun, 

we shared a lovely afternoon. 

Cold drinks and fresh desserts

 - saskatoon pie, 

    crepes stuffed with cherries, 

      rhubarb crumble, 

         apple pie kept conversation 

to a minimum for a short time. 

If we didn’t eat quickly 

our ice cream or 

  whipped cream toppings 

would melt!

Discussions ranged from travels 

throughout the world to 

   one member's garden with monarch butterflies 

then it was a walk down to explore  

     Over the Hill Orchards and Winery.

“Friendship is unnecessary, 

like philosophy, and art…It has no survival value; 

rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”

~ C.S.Lewis,  The Four Loves

Contact: Over the Hill Orchards and Winery at

   overthehillorchards.ca

The Real Autumn Comes

As autumn settles in 

wasps are sluggish 

yet still annoying; 

fruit flies still hover

and are yet to feel 

the cool of autumn,

playgrounds are quieter

as schools absorb our children, 

golden leaves drift from elms, 

yet to fill the corners and curbs

The air breathes sweater cool.

Calendar dictum remains in summer, 

autumn equinox only days away 

These cool days prepare the world

 for the beauty of real autumn.

“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.”

~ Oscar Wilde

Only a Rocking Chair

Only a rocking chair 

wood and varnish 

teeth marks on a rocker

from a puppy

to sit in it 

close my eyes 

rock gently 

memories slide 

to the old black rocking chair 

    with the wide seat 

  in our living room 

to the big solid oak 

 rocking chair with 

embroidered head rest and seat to 

 the small neat dark wood rocking chair 

of my grandparents home ~ 

gentle memories in 

only a rocking chair

wood and varnish 

teeth marks from a puppy.

“There is a peacefulness, an air of reflection, about a 

rocking chair that attaches to no other moving object.”

~ Wallis Simpson, socialite

(1896 ~ 1986)