Notice came in my email that my fall bulb order is on the way. I placed the order back in July, so now I need to dig through my records to remember what is coming. And where I planned to put them.

The muscari I remember. A hundred of the little bulbs are coming. I will be spending time on my knees. And given that I plan to put half of them up by the road, I will be kneeling in gravel. Time to find a cushion to protect my knees, I think. And a relatively dry day to do it.

The rest of the muscari are going in the bit of lawn in front of the house. Before planting, I think raking will be required. The lawn is a beautiful red and orange right at the moment. These leaves are going into the garden where there are ferns and crocosmia as well as evergreen trees.

The back yard is waiting to be raked again. So far, leaves have filled the area around an ash tree where I am trying to amend the clay so that something will grow there. These will be dug into the ground in the spring. The next pile needs to get moved a little farther in the other direction to another section of garden in need of nourishment. Some of these I will dig in right now. Some will wait until spring.

I have some compost also ready to be dug into the ground. Another area of hard clay grew some borage struggled to grow is waiting for that compost. The borage is still flowering, but soon it will be done, and the bees will be sleeping. I'll amend that soil so that the borage, among other things, does better next spring.

Last week, I was busy getting ready for winter. I made an appointment to get the snow tires put on the car. I brought in the cushions off the furniture on the porch. With help, I hauled in the outdoor table and chairs and stowed the kayaks. I've left one chair for my husband to sit by the water, and a bench for me. Before snow comes, there will be time to sit down by the water.  Then, they come inside as well.

I hung and filled the bird feeders. The squirrels immediately arrived. The black squirrels are filling up so that they can safely sleep through many days. The red squirrels seem to come out every day all winter, but they too performed a balancing act that let them take a bit of the bird seed. They will be well practiced with this manoeuvre by the time other sources of food are buried in snow.

Birds arrived as well. A flash of red indicated that a cardinal had found the seed. Cheery chickadee voices announced I had done my part of the job. Juncos, sparrows, and a nuthatch also showed up. They now know where a somewhat consistent supply of food will be when winter arrives.

Mice also seem to know that cold is coming. Them I am not as kind too. I do not like them in the house, though the cat seems to enjoy sniffing out their hiding places. I think they would be safer if they found a warm den outside.

But this coming week, when the package of bulbs arrives, I am going to be getting ready for sunshine and longer days, refreshing rain and warming earth, for spring. With each planting, I will think about green and growth and colour.

I do want to appreciate the stunning colours that are here now. Come January, I will enjoy the bracing cold, the snow, the quiet rest that comes with winter. But there is something about fall planting that keeps alive in me a sense of life renewed.

Cathy Hird lives on the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway