a look at life from the corners of my mind
….or at least, very few. Here’s what happen in middle Missouri over two days.
November 7, 2018
November 9, 2018
Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
~Bill Morgan, Jr.
Blog hopping with Comedy Plus for Wordless Wednesday.
Notice that autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature.
~Friedrich Nietzsche
Are you up for yet another photo of autumn? I hope so because I’ve taken gigabytes of fall color photos this year! My mums came out of the Halloween door decoration (an idea that looked better in my imagination than in reality) and have been transplanted into the main planters for the rest of the season.
My last post showed some of the gorgeous autumn colors here in middle Missouri. Most of them were of overall tree color.
While the colors of the trees feature the greatest, overall impact, there’s beauty in the details found a little closer to the ground.
These mums were all white when I planted them. Now, surprise!, the new flowers that are blooming are pink and white. Not sure how or why that happened. Perhaps some mineral in the potting soil? Whatever it is, they now clash with my crimson, orange and rust palette. But they are pretty, so they stay. Maybe they identified with the leftover summer, purple petunias that refuse to give up.
I’ve come across a term called autumn anxiety, but for the life of me I cannot understand how autumn’s charm doesn’t win over everyone. Yes, it’s the bridge between summer and winter, and I suppose that is enough to cause some to look at the season with dampened spirits.
But not me!
“I can smell autumn dancing in the breeze. The sweet chill of pumpkin and crisp sunburnt leaves.”
~Ann Drake
Blog hopping with Comedy Plus and Awww Monday.
It was a glorious Autumn here in middle Missouri this year. I had my doubts since Summer was so dry, but the season surprised me…in a good way. It’s now November and the leaves are raining down from the trees faster than I can type.
I seem to have a love-hate relationship with November. On one hand, I love the stillness of the month; not yet winter, but no longer the peak of Autumn’s beauty. November makes me pause. November makes me focus on gratitude and thankfulness…although those aspects should not be seasonal. Yet, November is always a harbinger of winter and the season of dark coldness. Autumn’s riot of color is finished and the crisp, joyous season of Christmas is not here yet. Most of the November seems to hang in limbo.
But there is always a November space after the leaves have fallen when she felt it was almost indecent to intrude on the woods…for their glory terrestrial had departed and their glory celestial of spirit and purity and whiteness had not yet come upon them.
~Anne of Windy Poplars
But, as I said, October’s main event was stunning this year. I’d like to share some of it with you. This one I snapped….yes….as I was driving around town. But, as you can see, I’m still in my lane! It’s a wonder more people don’t have accidents while looking at such awesomeness.
All of the rest of these were taken while Cabo and I walked in our neighborhood. Some were found in the manicured parts of yards, and some were discovered in the wild, wooded areas that separate those manicured yards.
Twinning.
The yellows and oranges were spectacular this year.
November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.
With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.
The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.
~Elizabeth Coatsworth (1893–1986)
And with that, I say goodbye to colorful October and welcome November with all it has to offer. I’ll look for beauty in the brownness and let my spirit snuggle into the coziness of the month.
The Halloween candy is far from finished but now we’re racing towards the holidays. My October 31st was a whirlwind of activity with grandbabykin school parties and trick or treating. Why do I subject myself to all this…for the second time around? Simply because they are only little once and I want to soak up all I can before I’m too old to be able to run this pace this anymore.
And, this year was a special year. Twix was finally old enough to be Snow White. That, in and of itself, doesn’t sound especially significant until you know the back story…….
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (circa 1989), there lived a four-year-old Snow White with her white, woodland bunny. These were costumes I made for my wee ones for Halloween fun. Little did I know at the time, Snow White would stand the test of time in more ways than one.
When 1991 rolled around, another four-year-old Snow White made her debut with sister princess, Rapunzel (another homemade costume). This one was expected. After all, it took me quite a while to make the Snow White costume, and I was determined to get more than one wearing out of it. I think they both wore it for a couple of Halloweens.
Fast forward to 2013. Five-year-old Peanut donned her Mama and godmother’s costume for another generation of Disney princess trick or treating. Why did I keep this costume in storage so many years? I suppose I simply couldn’t part with the memories.
And this year, at four years old, Twix followed in this tradition. And, a whole new set of memories have been made.
And, yes, the costume will go back into storage now. The Golfer has instructed me to keep it in case she should have a future princess to carry on the tradition.
Even though I missed Thankful Thursday at Brian’s Home, I’m thankful for the opportunities to make memories through photography for my family. I hope after I’m long gone, they will also stand the test of time.
A moral character is attached to autumnal scenes; the leaves falling like our years, the flowers fading like our hours, the clouds fleeting like our illusions, the light diminishing like our intelligence, the sun growing colder like our affections, the rivers becoming frozen like our lives—all bear secret relations to our destinies.
Oh my,
Especially to one who loves Autumn. I like this quote so much better.
It was one of those days you sometimes get latish in the autumn when the sun beams, the birds toot, and there is a bracing tang in the air that sends the blood beetling briskly through the veins.
~
But, here’s one that may split the difference in thought.
Autumn teaches us that fruition is also death; that ripeness is a form of decay. The willows, having stood for so long near water, begin to rust. Leaves are verbs that conjugate the seasons.
~Gretel Ehrlich
Leaves are verbs that conjugate the seasons…..don’t you just LOVE that line?!
If you’ve been a follower of mine for more than a few seasons, it’s no secret I have a passion for Autumn unlike any other time of year. Oh, there are things I like about all four seasons, but Autumn fills up every one of my senses. Just this morning I’m pretty certain that while sitting in the morning calm on the patio, I heard a squirrel banging a hickory nut against the trunk of a tree to get it open.
I loved autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it.
~Lee Maynard
The rest of these photos were taken during my morning walks with Cabo. He was more than willing to stop and pee sniff around while I snapped a few pics. Enjoy! I did.
Fall colors are funny. They’re so bright and intense and beautiful. It’s like nature is trying to fill you up with color, to saturate you so you can stockpile it before winter turns everything muted and dreary.
~Siobhan Vivian
I know the lands are lit, with all the autumn blaze of Goldenrod.
~Helen Hunt Jackson
There is a time in the last few days of summer when the ripeness of autumn fills the air.
~Rudolfo Anaya
And who wouldn’t love Autumn with this quote? We haven’t had our first frost yet, but I can visualize the beauty of this scene in my mind.
“But frost, like the crystallized dreams of autumn, began to coat the clearing with its sugar glaze.”
~Redemption
And now, I’ll just leave you with this thought.
“Come, little leaves,” said the Wind one day,
“Come to the meadows with me and play.
Put on your dresses of red and gold;
For Summer is past, and the days grow cold.”
~George Cooper
Blog hopping today with Thankful Thursday over at Brian’s Home. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m thankful for Autumn!!
“I love autumn,” Emily said to me. “It wins you over with its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.”
~Nicholas Sparks, Two By Two
While the trees here in middle Missouri are ramping up for their show, other areas are finishing with the warm up act. Most eyes are on the main event, but there’s beauty in the understated undergrowth if we’re willing to take time to notice.
Normally, decay is not a pretty sight. The spring and summer riot of color is welcoming to our visual senses after winter. How many of us love to cut/buy flowers to lift our spirits and brighten our mood? We tend to prefer beauty; we prefer organized; we prefer preservation. The lovely fields of wildflowers and architectural beauty of new/restored buildings thrill us…..but, not so much urban decay (which is interesting on its own merits) or the creepy crawlies in the decomposing leaf litter returning to the earth.
But, in Autumn…..these things work hand in hand to allow us to witness the beauty of nature in every phase of the lifecycle; the fascinating work of our ecosystem in sustaining life for the coming year.
There can be an unspoken beauty in death and decay.
Blog hopping today with Peabea’s Pictorial Tuesday.
Hello again. Cabo here with an update on the changing seasons. Although the calendar says it’s Autumn, the temperature still says it’s hot here in middle Missouri. My mom read in one of her magazines there should be another month added to the calendar called Saugust……hot temps like August, but in an Autumn month.
I agree. Part of me really wants to enjoy the outside……
But part of me likes being in my kennel where the portable AC is still running.
What do you think of my solution? Hope everyone has an (p)awwwwesome week.
Blog hopping today with Comedy Plus and Awwww Monday.
