Rambling thoughts on cycles and composting...

I was preparing our dinner last night, cutting into our last pumpkin that was plucked from our vine a while back and I was thinking about how the scraps I was removing were going straight back into our compost to be put into the garden again to support the growth of more of our own food.

I was thinking about how my garden looks and is growing and producing over winter and trying not to worry about how the coming ravages of our summer here will take it's toll. I've been watching our friends overseas with pleasure as they are already enjoying their summers and noticing with interest how some of our seasonal produce is still the same even in our differing climates.

The end of our winter will be the end and beginning of another cycle...the end of kind cool weather gardening, the beginning of hot sun and dry earth again....time for me to prepare and accept the change and choose my new seeds and methods wisely...and be patient if I need to bow down and just let summer do it's thing.

I know it's nothing new, nothing innovative or unprecedented, especially to the home gardener to exercise such consciousness of these cycles, of seasons, planting seeds, growth and reuse but I couldn't help contemplating for the moment on the serpentine nature of of it all and well, it's correlation to life.
Everything starts with a seed doesn't it? My pumpkins, my veges, our thoughts, ideas and actions; life may radiate into many branches in between, bearing sour or sweet fruit over it's own time depending on how our gardens are tended, and how many of our "scraps" we use to compost it...the lessons we learn and unlearn that power and direct our growth.

I'm not one really to go off with trying to sound sage like and sharing quotes but in a moment of serendipity this morning I read this from my celestial seasonings box while preparing my tea:

"Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each." Henry David Thoreau

Nice.