“How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.” ~John Burroughs
Yesterday was summer. Felt like summer. Today is autumn. A chilly day with rain all day long. Sweater weather even while walking. Perhaps not if the clouds hadn’t been hiding the sun, but the temperature struggled to inch past 60 degrees after it had been right at home in the 80s. The trees will surely be thinking maybe it’s time to start dressing up for fall. Most haven’t yet. Some of the poplar tree leaves have turned yellow and turned loose to be the first to float down to the ground. But most everything is nice and green since the rains have been plentiful here in Kentucky. But rain or not, fall is here and we’ll soon be feasting our eyes on golden maples and eventually red oaks. So to celebrate autumn’s appearance here are a few pictures from past years. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to capture some later this year to add to my fall collection.
“And the sun took a step back, the leaves lulled themselves to sleep and autumn was awakened.” ~Raquel Franco
Seeing this picture I took of a cabin up in the Smokies has me thinking about all the cabins I’ve had in my Appalachian stories. But only These Healing Hills had an autumn season. Along a Storied Trail was full of snowflakes and winter. An Appalachian Summer was just what it said – summer. These Healing Hills covered several seasons. The fall scene is the sorghum making and then winter and ice showed up in that story too. Maybe I need to go back to the mountains for an autumn setting so I can wax poetic about the beautiful fall colors.
“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all.” ~Stanley Horowitz
“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” ~Jim Bishop
This picture always makes me smile since I think it looks like a country girl’s jungle gym. I loved playing on grapevines when I was a kid and I’ve enjoyed introducing my grandchildren to the fun of grapevines too. We have plenty here on the farm for some swinging and climbing.
“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!” ~Winnie the Pooh
And, of course, there’s nothing much more fun for kids than jumping into a big pile of maple leaves. The grandkids have enjoyed the leaf piles in our yard and I’ve enjoyed their beautiful carpet of gold on the yard in the fall. Some years I’ve raked them up and carried them off down in the field or out to the garden. Mostly now though my husband mows them up if the kids don’t show up and want to rake up a pile or two.
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” ~Lauren DeStefano
What do you like best about the fall season?