Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Falling Leaves

Yesterday was a work day, but the Indian Summer weather
 made me want to be outside.
For the most part, I had to be content with looking out the window.
Although once or twice I was able to steal a moment and step outside
to watch the autumn leaves fluttering to the ground.

And so it is that the woods behind our house
have just this week revealed their autumn color.
In the sunlight, the leaves glitter like gold.
But the camera rarely captures the subtle interplay of color and light
or the last dance of  hundreds of autumn leaves
as the breeze lifts them from their branches and swirls them around
in an autumnal fandango.
Standing still as the leaves flurry over and around is a special kind of delight.
Even people who prefer other seasons,
have to pay homage to the razzle-dazzle of autumn color.

Following are some photos of the seasonal panorama behind our house.
Each is accompanied with favorite quotes about autumn.

Robert Browning:
Days decrease and autumn grows. 
Autumn in everything.
   
Nathaniel Hawthorne:
 I cannot endure to waste anything 
so precious as autumnal sunshine
by staying in the house.

John Greenleaf Whittier:
The tints of autumn ... a mighty flower garden
blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.

This excerpt from a poem by George Eliot is the best:
Is not this a true autumn day?
Just the still melancholy that I love--
that makes life and nature harmonize ... .
 The trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay,
and begin to strew the ground,
that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air ... .
Delicious autumn! My soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird, I would fly about the earth,
seeking the successive autumns. 
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