COUNTRY LIFE
ST. LUKE'S summer, which is dated from October 18th, has one other summer to follow—St. Martin's—but it is often the last real bit of summer, warm and green like its predecessors. Pleasant days thereabout, certainly occur year after year, but in what few records my memory hold, Oztober 17th has been the exact date of the first heavy frost. I remember seeing the chestnuts and ashes clean stripped at that date. The leaves fell almost like a drop curtain when the sun rather suddenly scattered the frosty mist. We have enjoyed so many summers this year that a little extra one will hardly be noticed, but the eve of St. Luke carries some strange evidence of the past warmth, especially among imported shrubs, though some natives, notably the blackberry, are flowering as freely as the strawberries. In my garden a choisya blossoming freely, and the flowers arc as sweetly scented as the leave, are peppery. The deciduous ceanothus continues to blossom, as do the roses, especially that queen of climbers the rather delicate Mermaid. As to seed germination, much has not waited for the clarion of the spria4 as Shelley's ode suggests. Apart from weeds some of the stubbles carry such lusty stalks of wheat and oats—the result of the rather heavy spilth of too ripe ears—that they threaten to flower this year.
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