While Labor Day is celebrated at the beginning of May in many cultures and is closely allied with Beltane, in North America, we celebrate our labors on the first Monday in September. Our celebrations usually coincide with the harvest, and they are more closely allied with Mabon or Harvest Home on or around September 21. What better image for Labor day than this rolling farm field near the hamlet of Rosetta in the Lanark Highlands with its huge rolls of golden hay drying in the sun, the wide marsh and fragrant cedars behind?On hot summer afternoons, there is the resonant buzz of cicadas. In early morning and at September dusk, there are deer and wild turkeys foraging here, and it is not unusual to see flocks of wild turkeys standing on the great round bales like sentinels. Always in autumn, there is the music of wild geese passing overhead.
One of my favorite fens is nearby, home in season to muskrat, herons, water snakes, little green frogs and floating clouds of fragrant yellow water lilies. The water lily leaves in my fen place are turning russet, gold and burgundy now, and they are adorned by jeweled dragonflies resting in the autumn sunlight and warming their wings for flight.
Field and fen are places for all seasons and all creatures, and they are cornucopias or horns of plenty for all who come. In recent weeks, the visiting creatures in our field have been local farmers cutting, winnowing and baling hay for the long nights time.
Have a good Labor Day!
1 comment:
I am often amused by our rolled fields, as you say, because here, our farmers "bale" them with white plastic and they look so much like giant marshmallows scattered in the fields.
I promised myself to stop on the way back from shopping to photograph them, one day earlier this summer, probably at the first hay cutting; but they were gone already by the time I got back.
The celebration of Labour day has been overshadowed by "Back-to-school" which is a pity.
K
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