October Potpourri

Here in Indiana the hydrangeas have long since
departed, except perhaps in potpourri,
but in England, they flourish well into October!

"When October comes
there is but haiku
in all things I find."

Kyoshi Takahama
(Japanese, 1874 - 1959)

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"...I remembered the rich smells
of fruit cake and marmalade
and dried rose petals and cinnamon."*

Shirley Jackson
(American, 1916 - 1965)

*In this beautiful passage from her memoir Raising Demons, Jackson recalls the day she took her young children to visit their Great - Aunt Gertrude. The children are curious: Is she a million years old? Is she very big?

"We got out of the car, moving slowly, and stood below in the road, looking up at the steep steps and the pink roses above. . . . 'No,' I said. 'Very small.'

. . . I took a deep breath. 'Come along,' I said, and we went up the steps, me well in advance, and Sally coming far behind . . . I found, with a kind of bewilderment, that I had to bend my head to come onto the porch, although Lauri and Jannie and Sally passed easily under the low archway framed in roses, and I knocked on the door with the conviction that it had been only a day or so [rather than many years] since I last saw its glass panel, engraved with a floral design and chipped in the lower right - hand corner. 'Ooh,' said Jannie softly as the door opened, and I remembered the rich smells of fruit cake and marmalade and dried rose petals and cinnamon" (117 - 18).

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See also The Sadness of Hydrangeas