November


Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers, and Lovers of the Green Way
Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Myths, Customs, Holidays, Traditions
Celebrations, Sayings, Poetry, Quips, References, Links
Ideas, Gardening Chores


Compiled by Karen and Mike Garofalo
Green Way Research, Red Bluff, California

 

Quotes      Links      References      Gardening Chores      Photos     Walking      Months     Autumn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotes

The Month of November
Poetry, Quotations, Sayings, Facts, Information, Quips, Aphorisms, Lore

 

 

"Over the river and through the woods
Trot fast my dapple gray.
Spring over the ground
Like a hunting hound
On this Thanksgiving Day, Hey!
Over the river and through the woods
Now Grandmother's face I spy.
Hurrah for the fun,
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie."
-   English folksong, It's Raining, It's Pouring 

 

 

"The third day comes a frost, a killing frost.
-   William Shakespeare

 

 

"How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.
 
At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow."
-   Elsie N. Brady, Leaves

 

 

"I saw the lovely arch
Of rainbow span the sky,
The gold sun burning
As the rain swept by."
-   Elizabeth Coatsworth, November

 

 

"Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves are whirling fast."
-  Sara Coleridge

 

 

"O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being.
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing."
-  Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

 

"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought
and care and toil.  And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as
from August to November."
-   Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden

 

 

"November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring."

-  Elizabeth Coatsworth

 

 

"Walked for half an hour in the garden.  A fine rain was falling, and the landscape was that of autumn.  The sky was hung with various shades of gray, and mists hovered about the distant mountains - a melancholy nature.  The leaves were falling on all sides like the last illusions of youth under the tears of irremediable grief.  A brood of chattering birds were chasing each other through the shrubberies, and playing games among the branches, like a knot of hiding schoolboys.  Every landscape is, as it were, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail."
-   Henri Frederic Amiel 

 

 

"So dull and dark are the November days.
The lazy mist high up the evening curled,
And now the morn quite hides in smoke and haze;
The place we occupy seems all the world."
-   John Clare, November

 

 

"Our Father, fill our hearts, we pray,
With gratitude Thanksgiving Day;
For food and raiment Thou dost give,
That we in comfort here may live."
-   Luther Cross, Thanksgiving Day  

 

 

"November always seemed to me the Norway of the year."
-   Emily Dickinson

 

 

"No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds -
November!"
-   Thomas Hood, No!

 

 

"When the trees their summer splendor
Change to raiment red and gold,
When the summer moon turns mellow,
And the nights are getting cold;
When the squirrels hide their acorns,
And the woodchucks disappear;
Then we know that it is autumn,
Loveliest season of the year."
-   Carol L. Riser, Autumn

 

 

"The last seed
falls from the sunflower-
empty pond.

The long awaited
rattle of rain on rooftops-
Thanksgiving Day."
-  Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings  

 

 

"If it is true that one of the greatest pleasures of gardening lies in looking forward, then the planning of next year's beds and borders must be one of the most agreeable occupations in the gardener's calendar.  This should make October and November particularly pleasant months, for then we may begin to clear our borders, to cut down those sodden and untidy stalks, to dig up and increase our plants, and to move them to other positions where they will show up to greater effect.  People who are not gardeners always say that the bare beds of winter are uninteresting; gardeners know better, and take even a certain pleasure in the neatness of the newly dug, bare, brown earth."
-   Vita Sackville-West 

 

 

"In the evenings
I scrape my fingernails clean,
hunt through old catalogues for new seed,
oil work boots and shears.
This garden is no metaphor --
more a task that swallows you into itself,
earth using, as always, everything it can."

-  Jan Hirshfield, November, Remembering Voltaire

 

 

"November's sky is chill and drear,
November's leaf is red and sear."
-   Sir Walter Scott

 

 

"The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on."
-  Emily Dickinson

 

 

"Give me the end of the year an' its fun
When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;
Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,
Let me sit down with the ones I love best,
Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,
See the old faces unblemished by wrong,
See the old table with all of its chairs
An' I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers."
-  Edgar A. Guest, Thanksgiving

 

 

"A few days ago I walked along the edge of the lake and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves
with each step I made. The acoustics of this season are different and all sounds, no matter how hushed, 
are as crisp as autumn air."
-   Eric Sloane

 

 

"All in November's soaking mist
We stand and prune the naked tree,
While all our love and interest
Seem quenched in the blue-nosed misery."
-  Ruth Pitter, 1897-1992, The Diehards, 1941

 

 

"The sky is streaked with them
burning hole in black space --
like fireworks, someone says
all friendly in the dark chill
of Newcomb Hollow in November,
friends known only by voices.

We lie on the cold sand and it
embraces us, this beach
where locals never go in summer
and boast of their absence. Now
we lie eyes open to the flowers
of white ice that blaze over us

and seem to imprint directly
on our brains. I feel the earth,
rolling beneath as we face out
into the endlessness we usually
ignore. Past the evanescent
meteors, infinity pulls hard."
-   Marge Piercy, Leonids Over Us

 

 

"There is music in the meadows, in the air --
Autumn is here;
Skies are gray, but hearts are mellow,
Leaves are crimson, brown, and yellow;
Pines are soughing, birches stir,
And the Gipsy trail is fresh beneath the fir.
 
There is rhythm in the woods, and in the fields,
Nature yields:
And the harvest voices crying,
Blend with Autumn zephyrs sighing;
Tone and color, frost and fire,
Wings the nocturne Nature plays upon her lyre."
-   William Stanley Braithwaite, Lyric of Autumn

 

 

"How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. 
Thanksgiving opens the doors.  It changes a child's personality.  A child is resentful, negative—or thankful.
Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw people."
-   Sir John Templeton

 

 

"When I look into your eyes
I can see a love restrained
But darlin' when I hold you
Don't you know I feel the same
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
And it's hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain."
-  Guns N' Roses, November Rain

 

 

"The white sun
like a moth
on a string
circles the southpole."
-   A. R. Ammons, Late November  

 

 

"The name 'November' is believed to derive from 'novem' which is the Latin for the number 'nine'.  In the ancient
Roman calendar November was the ninth month after March.  As part of the seasonal calendar November is the
time of the 'Snow Moon' according to Pagan beliefs and the period described as the 'Moon of the Falling Leaves'
by Black Elk."

-   Mystical WWW

 

 

"The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,
Ya-honk!  he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation:
The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen closer,
I find its purpose and place up there toward the November sky."
-   Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1855, I Celebrate Myself, Line 238

 

 

"The body is like a November birch facing the full moon
And reaching into the cold heavens.
In these trees there is no ambition, no sodden body, no leaves,
Nothing but bare trunks climbing like cold fire!

My last walk in the trees has come. At dawn
I must return to the trapped fields,
To the obedient earth.
The trees shall be reaching all the winter.

It is a joy to walk in the bare woods.
The moonlight is not broken by the heavy leaves.
The leaves are down, and touching the soaked earth,
Giving off the odors that partridges love."
-   Robert Bly, Solitude Late at Night in the Woods 

 

 

"You shared the spark,
You fanned the flame,
You fed the fires,
You passed the Names.
For all those known and
For all unnamed,
For all who have walked the Way;
We raise this toast,
With thanks this day."
-  Mike Garofalo,  Kindreds, Cuttings  

 

 

"How cold it is! Even the lights are cold;
They have put shawls of fog around them, see!
What if the air should grow so dimly white
That we would lose our way along the paths
Made new by walls of moving mist receding
The more we follow. . . . What a silver night!
That was our bench the time you said to me
The long new poem -- but how different now,
How eerie with the curtain of the fog
Making it strange to all the friendly trees!"

-   Sara Teasdale, A November Night  

 

 

"It's all a farce, – these tales they tell
About the breezes sighing,
And moans astir o'er field and dell,
Because the year is dying."
-   Paul Laurence Dunbar,  Lyrics of a Lowly Life

 

 

"This is the treacherous month when autumn days
With summer's voice come bearing summer's gifts.
Beguiled, the pale down-trodden aster lifts
Her head and blooms again. The soft, warm haze
Makes moist once more the sere and dusty ways,
And, creeping through where dead leaves lie in drifts,
The violet returns. Snow noiseless sifts
Ere night, an icy shroud, which morning's rays
Wildly shine upon and slowly melt,
Too late to bid the violet live again.
The treachery, at last, too late, is plain;
Bare are the places where the sweet flowers dwelt.
What joy sufficient hath November felt?
What profit from the violet's day of pain?" 
-  Helen Hunt Jackson, Autumn Sonnet 

 

 

"On this bleary white afternoon,
are there fires lit up in heaven
against such faking of quickness
and light, such windy discoursing?

While November numbly collapses,
this beech tree, heavy as death
on the lawn, braces for throat-
cutting ice, bandaging snow."
-    Edwin Honig, November Through a Giant Copper Beech

 

 

"Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn."
-   Elizabeth Lawrence

 

 

"Yea, I have looked, and seen November there;
The changeless seal of change it seemed to be,
Fair death of things that, living once, were fair;
Bright sign of loneliness too great for me,
Strange image of the dread eternity,
In whose void patience how can these have part,
These outstretched feverish hands, this restless heart?"

-  William Morris, November

 

 

"A tingling, misty marvel 
  Blew hither in the night, 
And now the little peach-trees 
  Are clasped in frozen light. 

Upon the apple-branches 
  An icy film is caught, 
With trailing threads of gossamer 
  In pearly patterns wrought. 

The autumn sun, in wonder, 
  Is gayly peering through 
This silver-tissued network 
  Across the frosty blue. 

The weather-vane is fire-tipped, 
  The honeysuckle shows 
A dazzling icy splendor, 
  And crystal is the rose." 
-   Evaleen Stein, November Morning

 

 

"Pleasures lie thickest where no pleasures seem:
There's not a leaf that falls upon the ground
But holds some joy of silence or of sound,
Some spirits begotten of a summer dream."
-   Laman Blanchard

 

 

"All the cabbages in our garden are robust and green to the core;
All the peppers are dead and black, not red anymore.
The onions are thriving, the tomatoes all gone,
The lettuce is rising, the pecans all stored;
It’s wet now in Red Bluff, Winter’s knocking at the door."
- Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

 

 

"Fog in November, trees have no heads,
Streams only sound, walls suddenly stop
Half-way up hills, the ghost of a man spreads
Dung on dead fields for next year's crop.
I cannot see my hand before my face,
My body does not seem to be my own,
The world becomes a far-off, foreign place,
People are strangers, houses silent, unknown."
-   Leonard Clark, Fog in November

 

 

"I built my cottage among the habitations of men,
And yet there is no clamor of carriages and horses.
You ask: "Sir, how can this be done?"
"A heart that is distant creates its own solitude."
I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge,
Then gaze afar towards the southern hills.
The mountain air is fresh at the dusk of day;
The flying birds in flocks return.
In these things there lies a deep meaning;
I want to tell it, but have forgotten the words."
-  Tao Yuan Ming

 

 

"I sometimes wonder if that is what Krishna meant -
Among other things - or one way of putting the same
    thing:
That the future is a faded song, a Royal rose or a lavender
    spray
Of wistful regret for those who are not yet here to regret,
Pressed between yellow leaves of a book that has never been
    opened.
And the way up is the way down, the way forward is the
    way back."
-   T. S. Eliot, The Dry Salvages, III

 

 

"Dismal November! me it soothes to view,
At parting day, the scanty foliage fall
From the wet fruit tree, or the grey stone wall,
Whose cold films glisten with unwholesome dew;
To watch the yellow mists from the dank earth
Enfold the neighboring copse; while on as they pass
The silent rain-drops bend the long rank grass
Which wraps some blossom's unmaturéd birth."
-   Charles Lloyd, To Autumn

 

 

"I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadow less like silence, listening
To silence."
-   Thomas Hood, Ode: Autumn, 1827

 

 

"My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane."
Robert Frost, My November Guest  

 

 

"The gloomy months of November, when the people of England hang and drown themselves."
-   Joseph Addison

 

"It's mornings like this;
The stingy sun trying to hold back
Even the warmth of its reflection
Flashing coldly In the lake.
When November leaves drop in sudden gusts,
Like a red and yellow flock of birds
Swooping at once to ground.
Or even nights:
When winds reach wet hands
To take you spinning with random paper
Down back street gutters, under straining bridges
To clogged rivers.
It's this:
The time of year, along with spring,
When poets must take care
Not to sing the same old songs
Stolen from tribal memory."
-   Thomas R. Drinkard

 

 

T   hanks for time to be together, turkey, talk, and tangy weather.
for harvest stored away, home, and hearth, and holiday.
for autumn's frosty art, and abundance in the heart.
for neighbors, and November, nice things, new things to remember.
for kitchen, kettles' croon, kith and kin expected soon.
for sizzles, sights, and sounds, and something special that about.
   
That spells THANKS for joy in living and a jolly good Thanksgiving.
                  
-   Aileen Fisher, All in a Word

 

 

"Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun!
One mellow smile through the soft vapory air,
Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds run,
Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare.
One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,
And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,
And the blue gentian-flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.
Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee
Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way,
The cricket chirp upon the russet lea,
And man delight to linger in thy ray.
Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear
The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air."
-   William Cullen Bryant, Autum  

 

 

"I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content."|
-  Lin Yutang

 

 

"This association of death with fertility provided the theological background for a great number of end-of-harvest festivals celebrated by many cultures across Eurasia.  Like Samhain, these festivals (which, for example, included the rituals of the Dyedy (“Ancestors”) in the Slavic countries and the Vetrarkvöld festival in Scandinavia) linked the successful resumption of the agricultural cycle (after a period of apparent winter “death”) to the propitiation of the human community’s dead.  The dead have passed away from the social concerns of
this world to the primordial chaos of the Otherworld where all fertility has its roots, but they are still bound to the living by ties of kinship.  It was hoped that, by strengthening these ties precisely when the natural cycle seemed to be passing through its own moment of death, the community of the living would be better able to profit from the energies of increase that lead out of death back to life.  Dead kin were the Tribe’s allies in the Otherworld, making it certain that the creative forces deep within the Land were being directed to serve the needs of the human community.  They were, in Celtic terms, a “humanising” factor within the Fomorian realm.

    Whatever the specific elements had been that determined the proper date of the end-of-harvest honouring of the dead in various places, by the ninth and tenth centuries the unifying influence of the Church had led to concentrating the rituals on November 1st and November 2nd.  The first date was All Hallows, when the most spiritually powerful of the Christian community’s dead (the Saints) were invoked to strengthen the living community, in a way quite consistent with pre-Christian thought.  The second date, All Souls, was added on (first as a Benedictine practice, beginning ca.  988) as an extension of this concept, enlarging it to include the dead of families and local communities.  Under the mantle of the specifically Christian observances, however, older patterns of ancestor veneration were preserved."
-   Sinquanon's Journal, Samhain

 

 

"Autumn is the eternal corrective. It is ripeness and color and a time of maturity; but it is also breadth, and depth,
and distance.  What man can stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the meaning
of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?"
-   Hal Borland

 

 

"first snow
house sparrows
darken the hedgerow"
-   Ellen Compton

 

 

"I am rich today with autumn's gold,
All that my covetous hands can hold;
Frost-painted leaves and goldenrod,
A goldfinch on a milkweed pod,
Huge golden pumpkins in the field
With heaps of corn from a bounteous yield,
Golden apples heavy on the trees
Rivaling those of Hesperides,
Golden rays of balmy sunshine spread
Over all like butter on warm bread;
And the harvest moon will this night unfold
The streams running full of molten gold.
Oh, who could find a dearth of bliss
With autumn glory such as this!"

-   Gladys Harp

 

 

"They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.  All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.  Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.” 
-   William Bradford, 1621 

 

 

"Lo! sweeten’d with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All its allotted length of days
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil."

-  
Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Lotus-Eaters

 

 

"It is hard to hear the north wind again,
And to watch the treetops, as they sway.

They sway, deeply and loudly, in an effort,
So much less than feeling, so much less than speech,

Saying and saying, the way things say
On the level of that which is not yet knowledge:

A revelation not yet intended.
It is like a critic of God, the world

And human nature, pensively seated
On the waste throne of his own wilderness.

Deeplier, deeplier, loudlier, loudlier,
The trees are swaying, swaying, swaying."
-   Wallace Stevens, The Region November

 

 

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields."
-  Colonel John McRae, In Flanders Fields

   November 11th - Veteran's Day in America, Armistice Day, 1918, Remembered

 

 

Green Way Blog by Michael P. Garofalo

 

 

 

"The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The ghosts of her
Departed leaves.

The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds are flown.

And yet the world,
In its distress,
Displays a certain
Loveliness"
-   John Updike, A Child's Calendar  

 

 

"Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard!
Heap high the golden corn!
No richer gift has Autumn poured
From out her lavish horn!"
-   John Greenleaf Whittier

 

 

"The wild November come at last
Beneath a veil of rain;
The night winds blows its folds aside,
Her face is full of pain.
The latest of her race, she takes
The Autumn's vacant throne:
She has but one short moon to live,
And she must live alone."
-  Richard Henry Stoddard, November

 

 

"Over the river and through the wood,
To grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh,
Through the white and drifted snow."
-   Lydia Maria Child, Thanksgiving Day, 1845  

 

 

"The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest all is gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway-
Thanksgiving comes again!"

 

  "Autumn is marching on: even the scarecrows are wearing dead leaves."
-   Otsuyu Nakagawa

 

 

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it,
the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."
-   Andrew Wyeth

 

 

"I am the ancient Apple Queen,
As once I was so am I now.
For evermore a hope unseen,
Betwixt the blossom and the bough.

Ah, where's the river's hidden Gold!
And where the windy grave of Troy?
Yet come I as i came of old,
From out the heart of summer's joy.
"
-   William Morris, Pomona
 
 
 
 
 
"Every year, in November, at the season that follows the hour of the dead, the crowning and majestic hours of autumn, I go to visit the chrysanthemums ... They are indeed, the most universal, the most diverse of flowers."
-   Maeterlinck

 

 

"Autumn arrives, array'd in splendid mein;
Vines, cluster'd full, add to the beauteous scene,
And fruit-trees cloth'd profusely laden, nod,
Complaint bowing to the fertile sod."
-   Farmer's Almanac (1818)

 

 

"It was Autumn, and incessant
Piped the quails from shocks and sheaves
And, like living coals, the apples
Burned among the withering leaves."
-   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

"Over the river and through the wood
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.

Over the river and through the wood
To have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring,
Ting-a-ling-ling!
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!"

-   Linda Maria Child, Over the River

 

 

"Soon we will plunge ourselves into cold shadows,
And all of summer's stunning afternoons will be gone.
I already hear the dead thuds of logs below
Falling on the cobblestones and the lawn.

All of winter will return to me:
derision, Hate, shuddering, horror, drudgery and vice,
And exiled, like the sun, to a polar prison,
My soul will harden into a block of red ice."

-   Charles Baudelaire, Autumn Song 

 

 

"The spirits of the air live on the smells
Of fruit; and joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees."
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat;
Then rose, girded himself, and o'er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load."

-   William Blake, To Autumn

 

 

"Splitting dry kindling
     on a damp November day--
wind-chimes tinkling."
                        
-    Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings

 

 

"The acrid scents of autumn,
Reminiscent of slinking beasts, make me fear"

-   D. H. Lawrence, Dolor of Autumn, 1916

 

 

"If I'm ever reborn, I want to be a gardener—
there's too much to do for one lifetime!" 
-   Karl Foerster

 

 

Green Way Blog by Michael P. Garofalo

 

 

"The snapping of pitch from a burning log,
The faint scent of pine filling the room.
Flames leaping about as if it were a ballet
Performing for its audience.
The soft, comforting glow of candlelight,
Bringing with it serenity and quiet thoughts."

-   Linda Christensen, Autumn's Beauty 

 

 

"The wind that makes music in November corn is in a hurry.  The stalks hum,
the loose husks whisk skyward in half-playing swirls, and the wind hurries on....
A tree tries to argue, bare limbs waving, but there is no detaining the wind."
-   Aldo Leopold

 

 

"Saw the rainbow in the heaven,
In the eastern sky the rainbow,
Whispered, "What is that, Nokomis?"
And the good Nokomis answered:
"'Tis the heaven of flowers you see there;
All the wild-flowers of the forest,
All the lilies of the prairie,
When on earth they fade and perish,
Blossom in that heaven above us.
"
-  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha

 

 

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln, decleared the last Thursdayof November to be
a National Day of Thanksgiving.

 

 

"The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. 
The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July."

-   Henry David Thoreau  

 

 

"Was it the ghost of autumn in that smell
Of underground, or God's blank heart grown kind,
That sent a happy dream to him in hell?"

-   Siegfried Sasson, Break of Day, 1918

 

 

"There was three kings into the east, 
Three kings both great and high, 
And they hae sworn a solemn oath 
John Barleycorn should die. 

They took a plough and plough'd him down, 
Put clods upon his head, 
And they hae sworn a solemn oath 
John Barleycorn was dead."

-  Robert Burns, John Barleycorn Harvest Home

 

 

"Have you ever noticed a tree standing naked against the sky, 
How beautiful it is?  
All its branches are outlined, and in its nakedness 
There is a poem, there is a song.  
Every leaf is gone and it is waiting for the spring.  
When the spring comes, it again fills the tree with 
The music of many leaves, 
Which in due season fall and are blown away. 
And this is the way of life."
-   Krishnamurti 

 

 

"Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable, the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown
along the street or road by a gusty wind, and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese. 
Both are warnings of chill days ahead, fireside and topcoat weather."
-   Hal Borland

 

 

Months and Seasons
Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore, Myths,
Celebrations, Holidays, Facts, Resources
Gardening Chores
 
Winter Spring Summer Fall
January April July October
February May August November
March June September December 

 

 

"The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold....
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands, I used to hold
Since you went away, the days grow long
And soon I'll hear ol' winter's song.
But I miss you most of all my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall."

-  Johnny Mercer, lyrics, Autumn Leaves

 

 

"Harvest home, harvest home!
We've plowed, we've sowed
We've reaped, we've mowed
And brought safe home
Every load."
Harvest Home Song, Lore and Magick of the Harvest

 

 

"Crown'd with the sickle, and the sheaten sheaf,
While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain,
Comes jovial on.
"
-   James Thomson, Autumn, 1730

 

 

"Cornstalks from last summer's garden now lean toward the kitchen window, and the November wind goes through them in a shudder.  Their thin tassels spread out beseeching fingers, and their long bleached blades flutter like ragged clothing."
-   Rachel Peden

 

 

"Now the frost is in the air.
Blue the haze at early dawn.
There is color everywhere.
Old and ragged looks the lawn.
Autumn's resting on the hills.
Harvested are fruit and grain,
And the home with gladness thrills.
Buckwheat cakes are back again!
Every season has its joys,
Every day its touch of mirth.
For us all - both girls and boys -
God has well supplied the earth.
What if care must fall between
Peace and pleasure now and then?
Autumn holds this happy scene:
Buckwheat cakes are back again!
Time and trouble change us all,
Youth gives way to middle age,
One by one our fancies fall
Till we reach life's final stage,
But in spite of aches and panes
And the difference old age makes,
Man devoted still remains
To a stack of buckwheat cakes."
-   Edgar A. Guest, Buckwheat Cakes

 

 

"I ate too much turkey,
I ate too much corn,
I ate too much pudding and pie,
I'm stuffed up with muffins
and much too much stuffin',
I'm probably going to die.

I piled up my plate
and I ate and I ate,
but I wish I had known when to stop,
for I'm so crammed with yams,
sauces, gravies, and jams
that my buttons are starting to pop.

I'm full of tomatoes
and french fried potatoes,
my stomach is swollen and sore,
but there's still some dessert,
so I guess it won't hurt
if I eat just a little bit more."
-    Jack Prelutsky, I Ate Too Much

 

 

 



"This is the year's despair: some wind last night
Utter'd too soon the irrevocable word,
And the leaves heard it, and the low clouds heard;
So a wan morning dawn'd of sterile light;
Flowers droop'd, or show'd a startled face and white;
The cattle cower'd, and one disconsolate bird
Chirp'd a weak note; last came this mist and blurr'd
The hills, and fed upon the fields like blight.
Ah, why so swift despair! There yet will be
Warm noons, the honey'd leavings of the year,
Hours of rich musing, ripest autumn's core,
And late-heap'd fruit, and falling hedge-berry,
Blossoms in cottage-crofts, and yet, once more,
A song, not less than June's, fervent and clear."
-  Edward Dowden, Later Autumn Song

 

 

"Most people, early in November, take last looks at their gardens, are are then prepared to ignore them until the spring. 
I am quite sure that a garden doesn't like to be ignored like this.  It doesn't like to be covered in dust sheets, as though
it were an old room which you had shut up during the winter.  Especially since a garden knows how gay and delightful
it can be, even in the very frozen heart of the winter, if you only give it a chance."
-   Beverley Nichols

 

 

"A sun-drenched sky
on windy autumn day;
out across open fields
passing clouds make shadow play.

Silent beauty in multi-hues
but ominous in a sense;
for though today be delightful
darkness soon gains precedence.
-   Ray, Psychology of Seasons

 

 

"Besides the autumn poets sing,
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the haze.

A few incisive mornings,
A few ascetic eves, -
Gone Mr. Bryant's golden-rod,
And Mr. Thomson's sheaves.
"
-   Emily Dickinson, Nature: XLIX

 

 

"When shrieked
The bleak November winds, and smote the woods,
And the brown fields were herbless, and the shades
That met above the merry rivulet
Were spoiled, I sought, I loved them still; they seemed
Like old companions in adversity."
-   William Cullen Bryant, A Winter Piece

 

 

"The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sear."
-   William Cullen Bryant

 

 

"Let confusion be the design
and all my thoughts go,
swallowed by desire: recess
from promises in
the November of your arms.
Release from the rose: broken
reeds, strawpale,
through which, from easy
branches that mock the blood
a few leaves fall. There
the mind is cradled,
stripped also and returned
to the ground, a trivial
and momentary clatter. Sleep
and be brought down, and so
condone the world, eased of
the jagged sky and all
its petty imageries, flying
birds, its fogs and windy
phalanxes . . ."
-   William Carlos Williams, Design for November

 

"We are all flowers in the garden of the world.
Some of us are daisys dainty and bright.
Some of us are poppys,with sweet contagious laughter.
If there was a flower for you,
Youd be a wild orchid,
So full of life,colors alive,
Sprinkled with scarlett and purple,
Explosions of colors racing through your petals."
-  Lanie Costea, A Wild Orchid 

 

"Just as I wonder
whether it's going to die,
the orchid blossoms
and I can't explain why it
moves my heart, why such pleasure
comes from one small bud
on a long spindly stem, one
blood red gold flower
opening at mid-summer,
tiny, perfect in its hour."
- Sam Hamill, The Orchid Flower

 

Understanding Orchids: An Uncomplicated Guide to Growing the World's Most Exotic Plants
Orchids For Dummies
Orchids: Resources, Poems, Quotes
Bloom-Again Orchids: 50 Easy-Care Orchids that Flower Again and Again and Again
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids
Easy Orchids: Simple Secrets for Glorious Gardens--Indoors and Out

 

"Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods."
-   William Allingham

 

 

"From the gardener's point of view, November can be the worst month to be faced: Nature is winding things down, the air is cold, skies are gray, but usually the final mark of punctuation to the year as yet to arrive - the snow; snow that covers all in the garden and marks a mind-set for the end of a year's activity.  There is little to do outside except to wait for longer days in the new year and the joys of coming holidays."
-   Peter Loewer

 

 

"November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days.  November begins in western tropical astrology with the sun in the sign of Scorpio (astrology) and ends in the sign of Sagittarius (astrology). Astronomically speaking, the sun actually begins in the constellation of Libra, passes through Scorpius from approximately the 24th through the 29th and ends in the constellation of Ophiuchus, which is the only zodiacal constellation that is not associated with an astrological sign.  In Latin, novem means "nine". November was also the ninth month in the Roman calendar until a monthless winter period was divided between January and February.  In old Japanese calendar, the month is called Shimo tsuki (霜月).
-   November - Wikipedia

 

 

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November

Links and References

 

 

Annie's Month of November


Apple Lore


An Annotated & Illustrated Collection of Worldwide Links to Mythologies, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Sacred Arts & Sacred Traditions.
   By Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.


Autumn and Thanksgiving Poetry


Autumn - A Celebration of Tradition in Vermont   


Autumn Greetings - Customs and Lore: September - December.  By Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.. 


Autumn in Milan    Hypertext poem by Fontaine Roberson.   


Autumn Poetry Collection


Autumn - Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore
  


A Blessed Samhain


Can Teach: Songs and Poems of November 


Christmas, Winter Solstice, Yule Season 


Cloud Hands Blog


Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for all Seasons and Reasons.  By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart.  Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, New Page Books, 2006.  Appendices, glossary, index, 288 pages.  ISBN: 1564148645.  VSCL. 


Cuttings - November
.   Short poems by Michael P. Garofalo.   


Daily Lore -  November


Day of the Dead  (Dia de los Muertos)    Links


Day of the Dead Holiday in Mexico - Links


Day of the Dead Information   


Day of the Dead Guide   Peoples Guide to Mexico. 


Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico.    By Katherine Jenks. 


Daoist Health and Spiritual Practices


December: Quotes, Poems, Lore, Myths, Sayings, Celebrations 


Fairies, Elves, Nature Spirits:  Lands Spirits, Alfs, Wights, Lars, Trolls, Dwarves, Sidhe, Devas, Otherworld, Little Folk, Ancestors, Ghosts 


Fall - Autumn Poetry   


Fall, Autumn - Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore   


Fall Poems.   By Linda Copp.   


Flowers: Quotations, Lore, Myths, Resources


General Folklore and Mythology Links


German Folklore and Customs for Autumn


The Green Man (Powers of Spring and Summer): Bibliography, Links, Quotes, Information, Lore, Myths, Role  


Green Way Blog


The Green Wizard   


Halloween, Day of the Ancestors, Day of the Dead, Samhain, Fall Harvest Celebration: Links, Resources, Preparations, Lore, Poetry


In Nature's Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth.  By Patricia Montley.   Boston, Skinner House Books, 2005.  Index, 379 pages.  ISBN: 155896486X    VSCL. 


In Search of Halloween: Myth and Reality 


The Labyrinth: Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotes.  By Michael Garofalo


Land Spirits, Nature Spirits:  Fairies, Elves, Alfs, Wights, Trolls, Dwarves, Sidhe, Devas, Otherworld, Little Folk, Ancestors, Ghosts 


Month by Month Poetry
: September, October, November; K-2.   Compiled by Marian Reiner. 


Months: Poems, Quotations, Sayings, Lore


Mrs. Titus's Third Grade  


Nature Spirits:  Fairies, Elves, Alfs, Wights, Lars, Trolls, Dwarves, Sidhe, Devas, Otherworld, Little Folk, Ancestors, Ghosts 


November Holiday Links by Yahoo
   


November Holidays and Celebrations.    Compiled by Sue LaBeau.


November Holidays and Observances  


November Ideas for Teachers


November Lore
   Many interesting facts about the holidays and lore of November.   "The eleventh month of the Gregorian calendar and the third of Autumn's rule.   The name is derived from Novem, the Latin word for nine, as November was the ninth month in Rome's oldest calendar.  In the Celtic tradition, winter began on November 1st,  and was the first day of the Celtic year." 


November - Mystical WWW


November Quotes and Poems


November:  Quotes, Poems, Lore, Myths, Sayings


November Poetry - Catholic    


November - Short Poems and Haiku by Michael P. Garofalo


November - Songs and Poems
    


November - Wikipedia 


One Old Druid's Final Journey - The Notebooks of the Librarian of Gushen Grove  


October: Quotes, Poems, Lore, Myths, Gardening


The Orchard of the Great Apple Goddes, Pomona 


Pathways in the Green Valley Blog.   By Michael Garofalo. 


Preparing for Christmas, Yule Season, Winter Solstice


Quotations about the Months of the Year


Quotes for Gardeners    Over 3,500 quotes arranged by over 140 topics.  


Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens.  Valley Spirit Center.  By Karen and Mike Garofalo. 


Sacred Circles:  Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotations, Notes, Construction 


Samhain, Halloween, Day of the Ancestors, Fall Harvest Celebration: Links, Resources, Preparations, Lore, Poetry


Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal.  By Alexei Kondratiev. 


School of the Seasons    By Waverly Fitzgerald.   November 


Some November Poems 


The Spirit of Gardening


Taoist Health and Spiritual Practices


Thanksgiving and Autumn Poetry Index
  


Thanksgiving Greeting E-Cards


Thanksgiving Links


Thanksgiving Poetry
   


Thanksgiving Poetry Index


Trees: Quotations, Lore, Myths, Resources 


Ways of Walking


Wicca Holidays and Sabbaths 


Winter Solstice, Christmas, Yule Season


Zen Poems

 

November Weather Lore


A warm November is the sign of a bad Winter.

Onion skins very thin,
Mild Winter coming in;
Onion skins thick and tough,
Coming Winter cold and rough.

Flowers bloomin' in late Autumn,
A sure sign of a bad Winter comin'.

As high as the weeds grow,
So will the bank of snow.

Thunder in the Fall foretells a cold Winter.

If there’s ice in November to bear a duck
There’ll be nothing after but sludge and muck.

On All Hallow's Day cut a chip from the beech tree;
If it be dry the winter will prove warm.

 

November - Associations

 

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November Gardening Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

Typical Weather for Our Area

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens

The Spirit of Gardening

 

Removing dead and non-productive summer vegetable crops. 
Turn in composted steer manure and compost into the cleared vegetable garden.
Ordering from seed and garden catalogs.  
Planting potted trees and shrubs.  
Putting winter crops in the ground and harvesting greens: onions, lettuce, radishes, garlic, beets, chard, cabbage.
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Planting bulbs.
Prune and mulch dormant perennials. 
Prune fruit trees.
Storing and repairing tools.  
Cleaning, storing, repairing and removing gasoline from equipment. 
Fertilize with 20-9-9 or 16-16-16. 
Trees without leaves need little or no watering.   
Reduce or eliminate watering, watering as needed, depending upon rainfall, normally 3.1 inches in November.
Picking pumpkins, squash, colored corn, and other crops for Thanksgiving decorations.
Pruning grape vines.  
Picking and storing peppers. 
Raking leaves and add to compost piles and mulch layers.
Lawn care: aerate soil and fertilize.    
Digging holes and post holes in cooler weather. 
Burning dead trees and shrubs in burn pile. 
Watering potted plants. 
Reading gardening books and catalogs. 

 

 

 

November Gardening Chores and Tips


Earth Wise November Creations Tips

The Garden Helper Tips for November

Northwest News: Home and Garden Tips

Oak Hill Tips for November

Oregon State University Tips

Seasonal Garden Chores - Links

52 Weeks in the California Garden by Richard Smaus

The Gay Gardener - November

Top November Garden Projects by Ed Hume in the Pacific Northwest

November Gardening Tips from Ortho   

Garden Pursuits - November (All Zones)

 

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Photographs in November

Karen and Mike Garofalo
Red Bluff, Northern Rural California

Red Bluff Gardens -  Comparison from 1998 - 2007

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens 

 

 

 

  

  

  

  

   

   

   

 

 

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More Quotes for Gardeners

 


Cloud Hands Blog

Trees 

Spirituality and Concerns of the Soul

Flowers

Weeds and Weeding

Simplicity and the Simple Life



Pulling Onions:  Observations of a Gardener
By Michael P. Garofalo

Clichés for Gardeners and Farmers

Jokes, Riddles and Humor

The History of Gardening Timeline   From Ancient Times to the 20th Century

Short Poems by Michael P. Garofalo

Seeing and Vision

Beauty in the Garden

Seasons and Time

Awards and Recognition for this Web Site

Religion

Willpower, Resolve, Determination:  Quotes, Poems, Sayings


 

The Spirit of Gardening

 

Quotes for Gardeners

Quotes, Sayings, Proverbs, Poetry, Maxims, Quips, Clichés, Adages, Wisdom
A Collection Growing to Over 3,500 Quotes, Arranged by 140 Topics
Many of the Documents Include Recommended Readings and Internet Links.
Over 6 MB of Text.
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo

 

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Distributed on the Internet by Michael P. Garofalo


I Welcome Your Comments, Ideas, Contributions, and Suggestions
E-mail Mike Garofalo in Red Bluff, California

Who is Mike Garofalo?


November  -  Quotes, Poems, Folklore, Customs, Garden Chores.
Last updated on November 21, 2012

This November Quotations document was first published on the Internet WWW on January, 2000, at http://www.gardendigest.com/monnov.htm.

On January 1, 2005, this November Quotations document as moved and thereafter updated at http://www.egreenway.com/months/monnov.htm.

 

The Spirit of Gardening

Cloud Hands Blog

Quotes for Gardeners

The History of Gardening Timeline 

Pulling Onions

Seasons

Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong

Winter

 

 

 

Months
Seasonal and Gardening
Poems, Quotes, Sayings, Ideas, Links, Chores

Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo


Winter

Spring

Summer

Autumn

January April July October
February May August November
March June September December

 

 

Green Way Blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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