My sister has taken on the vibe of a wood witch the last couple of years. She would do well living in a secluded cottage just outside of town, and the villagers stay away from her until one of the village maidens needs to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy, or the village dairy cow is suffering from a malady. Then suddenly they come asking for help. She tends to her garden, and minds her own business.
Recently, she has started decorating her house in preparation for the fall. Candles, pumpkins, wreaths, all in appropriate autumnal colours. One of the things she’s created is a display of leaves, pumpkins, and pinecones, nicely lit up in a display case. My sister is very good at that, decorating things to fit a vibe, and she knocked it out of the park again. She proudly told us that it was just like the autumn boxes that we would create in elementary school.
The autumn box was an assignment we would get in elementary school, where we would be asked to go out and collect beautiful leaves, pinecones, and other assorted plant material that we would then display inside a box-like table, which we would display prominently in class for the remainder of the autumn months. It was all rather pagan, when I reflect on it.
I was very happy when my sister mentioned the autumn box, because I honestly think about that project an average of about once a month, and I thought I was the only one that remembered it so fondly. It’s basically my pumpkin spice.