November

 November. According to the calendar, it's the last month of autumn. But the weather always makes its own adjustments to the calendar. This year, which is almost certainly drawing to a close, spring arrived very late. The cold weather lingered until May. The vegetable seedlings remained on my windowsill until the end of May. 

  

Now autumn is in no hurry to leave, as if eager to give us a little warmth we missed in the spring. It's trying to preserve its colors to delight northerners. Only frequent rains prevent us from walking in the fresh air and enjoying the autumn.

 

 

The trees and shrubs didn't shed their leaves in October. Only with the onset of cold, sometimes frosty, nights in November did the leaves begin to turn yellow and fall. Although the warm season is drawing to an end, we can still hear the crunch of yellow and golden leaves underfoot and admire the rays of sunlight filtering through the tree branches. 

 

 

What is November like in your region? Are you enjoying the colors of autumn, or is autumn just beginning? Or perhaps spring has just arrived and everything is blooming?   

Spider Lily

 I have several spider lily bulbs that I germinate indoors and then plant outdoors. If the lilies bloom late in the summer or fall, they can be transplanted into containers and grown indoors.

 

Hymenocallis, or spider lily, is a genus of plants in the Amaryllidaceae family. This unique and elegant plant is sometimes called "sea daffodil" or "Peruvian daffodil."
Hymenocallis requires warmth to thrive outdoors. Spider lilies, available in white and red, are the most popular and widely grown plant worldwide.

A minimum temperature of 13 degrees Celsius is required for growth. Water moderately until the leaves appear green, then stop when the leaves begin to wilt in the fall. For the winter, the plant is dug up from the open ground and stored. Hymenocallis undergoes a dormant period during the winter.
This large, showy flower, rare in cultivation, is coveted by exotic plant collectors.
Hymenocallis is a beautiful flower, prized not only for its appearance but also for its wonderful fragrance, which is often strongest after sunset.

 

Hymenocallis has a tropical appearance when grown in containers. A blooming green garden on the veranda not only refreshes but also gives your home a pleasant look.

 

 

 

 

 

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Prishvin's Stories: Beginning of Autumn

Short stories about the nature of the autumn season by Mikhail  Prishvin , a Russian novelist (1873 -1954),  in the form of notes convey that touching mood of romance and pleasant sadness.

"Today at dawn one lush birch stepped out of the forest into the clearing, and another, timid, thin, dropped leaf after leaf onto the dark fir tree. Following this, as the dawn grew brighter and brighter, different trees began to appear to me differently. This always happens at the beginning of autumn, when after a lush and common summer a great change begins and all the trees begin to experience leaf fall differently.

I looked around. Here is a hummock, combined by the paws of black grouse. Previously, you would certainly find a feather of a black grouse or a wood grouse in the hole of such a hummock, and if it was speckled, you knew that a female had dug, if black - a rooster. Now in the holes of the combined hummocks lie not the feathers of birds, but fallen yellow leaves. And here is an old, old russula, huge, like a plate, all red, and the edges curled up from old age, and in the dish floats a yellow birch leaf.

Autumn dew has fallen. Flies are knocking on the ceiling. Sparrows are flocked. Rooks are in the harvested fields. Magpies graze in families on the roads. The dews are cold, gray. Another dewdrop in the axil of a leaf sparkles all day long".

As a child, I read many of Prishvin's stories about nature. Do you think his descriptions match the beginning of autumn in your area? 

 

 

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