Fall Flaunts Fabulous Foliage

Just for the record, I posted my pictures before JP ran this topic...What are you doing on the computer? Get outside and enjoy your autumn!

BTW~autumn is much MUCH more beautiful when you're wearing one of JP's sweaters, or the wool gloves from last year's winter catalog... I LOVE the new wool shirt jacket that came in the mail last week!! TT, hope you took my advice on ordering it when it was on sale!! My cowboy looks waaaaaay hotter than the Marlboro man with that new Peterman wool shirt...

Autumn Movement

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper
sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes,
new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,
and the old things go, not one lasts.

Carl Sandburg

Y'all have a good rest of the day.

Did someone mention ALLITERATION?

Unfortunately, our colors here this year are not as beautiful as they have been in years past.  Apparently it's because of the wacky weather we've has along with a lot less rain (until recently).  At this point, it seems like forever since I've seen sunshine.

Here in N. GA, the leaves are colorful out on the hills and Pine Log mountain that I see from the front of my house. They are red, yellow, orange, and brown. Alll leaves are flying off quickly today as the wind blows in gusts. It is a perfect autumn day with lows in the high 40's, high's in the upper 60's/low 70's. It is not the most beautiful color ever, as we had drought. Many of the leaves are brown, crispy dry, or brown on the edges.

There are apple, cane, or pumpkin festivals in most of the little towns in the north hills on the weekends. I am peering out my kitchen window as I sit here at the laptop, looking over yellow chrysanthemums and pink cone flowers in my yard, then watching the 6 deer feeding at the neighbor's huge, hunter style corn feeder in their side yard, hoping that the deer don't stop by my house for dessert.

Surrounded by hundreds of hardwoods, oak, hickory, maple, beech, I am reminded that all the leaves will soon be gone and I will be able to see for miles out east where the sun is a dramatic show at sunrise each morning.
The leaves fall so fast that I have to sweep or use the blower several times a day. I don't let them pile up on the deck because they get too deep to move easily. One advantage--With so many crunchy leaves underfoot, the deer are easier to detect when they walk through my yard.

There have been those who find Autumn to be depressing.  A time of death, they say.  I find those people to be of the "glass half empty" category; Autumn to me, with all the vibrant colors, is absolutely breath-taking.  My favorite time of year.  I can even forgive the leaves that stick to our shoes and get tracked into the house.....and, it's a time when I can wear a sweather (Peterman, of course) or jacket to hide all the bad stuff.

I sat outside this morning with my coffee, just looking at the woods and all the colors.  So gorgeous and the weather......ah, the weather, too good not to be enjoyed.

Time for a walk down Cornflake lane, a pretty, narrow lane planted with ancient beech trees to create a tunnel effect. During fall, a deep mat of crispy leaves builds up - great fun to kick through in your boots savouring the scent of the damp leaves beneath already rotting doen into leafmold. My son, about 3yrs old at the time remarked gleefully that it was like playing in a bowl of Cornflakes, so Cornflake Lane it is since known as.
 

Graygoose- bet you do!!!
***
Actually in a cabin on Center Hill Lake near the Cumberland Plateau. The view from my deck is spectacular as I recover from Ms T's version of Paula Dean's Bananas Foster French Toast. Temp in the 50's bright blue skies. Plenty of firewood & heading out to hike to the waterfalls and then an afternoon canoe ride in the Candy Fork my old trout stream. Hearing Dan Fogelberg in my head...

What is it about walking through those crunchy leaves?  My youngest grandchildren love it; love to jump in them, love to kick then, love to walk in then.  And, truth be told, though there's not much jumping going on these days, I do love that crunch when you walk in them...plus, as said, that weather!

Andy,et.al, - it,the affinaty for leaves,may be from a memory of when we dwelt in trees....

OK, I was just monkying around

RY ~ I guess that explains the banana thing too -- thanks, once again, for the smile

Andy, I'm with you...I love walking through crunchy leaves. I will step out of my way just to step on a leaf to hear it crunch. Since I was a child walking to and from school, the sound of leaves crunching under foot has been a treat.
 
hazel, Cornflake Lane...perfect!

For all my 'e'friends experincing health problems -
Be realistic - expect a miracle!
 

I have to agree that the autumn has its own charm, but I think
part of that charm is its reminder of transitions. I can’t imagine life without
them.  Yesterday, her grandmother,
mentioned that our four year-old's face has changed in the little bit of time
since she had last seen her.  I replied
that we got her a new one, swapped out the old one and were hoping no one would
notice.  Some things change, some things
never change.

We are off to the local bocce field for an autumn
party.  What a wonderful world!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kP8jPa1wCg

HAZEL! Perfect sentiment for a gorgeous colorful day like today!

Just posted a  picture of what the piedmont of Virginia looks like when out hunting in the fall.  Guess we all do agree that autumn is a spectaular season.

Hazel - absolutely!

 
Being downunder, it is of course Spring here; being in the
Roaring 40s zone, we get constant reminders from the gusty winds. But Autumn is
my favourite time of the year.  Growing
up in Singapore, we didn’t have the four seasons but we all celebrated the
mid-Autumn festival, typically in Sept or Oct. 
Eating mooncakes, drinking tea, the traditionalists spouting Autumn
poetry and the children (even the non-Chinese ones) walking the neighbourhood
with colourful lanterns.

Chinese philosophy is very much based on the interaction
between natural forces, that of between Heaven, Earth and human energies, and everything
is thus in a constant circle of birth and death, beginning and end, yin and
yang.  Each season is associated with a
colour, a sound, a natural element, direction, body organ, emotion, for example

 •            During autumn, there is a surge of
respiratory illnesses, asthma, colds and flus, changes are occurring in our
metabolic rate, circulation and skin. The LUNGS, LARGE INTESTINES and SKIN need
extra attention.   

So to celebrate my Chinese heritage and to stand in solidarity
with you my friends, I think I might:

·        
Stand facing the WEST – to honour the contracting day, the fading light

·        
Light WHITE
candles and place WHITE flowers in
the house

·        
I will take time to reflect on my life, as is
suggested by the reflecting quality of METAL;
this transition from a Yang season to a Yin season is to invite one to a
more introspective period, a period for letting go

·        
WEEP
for the people and important things that I have lost, and, for regret over lost
paths for weeping is the sound of autumn

·        
In letting go, I will also reflect on my dreams,
my visions, the path ahead though unmarked and unclear, I will allow myself to
face the future with COURAGE

Have a wonderful Autumn my friends

That's terrible formatting.....sorry! 

I think Autumn, aside from being amazingly beautiful, is the season of hope.  Andy referenced the glass half full/helf empty, and that goes to my point:  Autumn doesn't warn of an ending that's coming; instead, its colors herald a time of quiet growth.  People say of winter that 'the earth is sleeping" and they shiver with that thought - How can it be asleep? Beneath the cold ground and snow so much growth is going on, so much magic, otherwise, how could the flower that makes its way up through the dirt in the spring be such a wondrous colorful healthy living thing?  I think Autumn's colors aren't a goodbye, but a celebration of the life cycle that never stops.  It's perfectly amazing, isn't it?  Enough to make one grown up woman get a little misty-eyed with the hugeness of it all, and the blessing that is ours, to be here, to see it, to be living in it...

I think Autumn, aside from being amazingly beautiful, is the season of hope.  Andy referenced the glass half full/helf empty, and that goes to my point:  Autumn doesn't warn of an ending that's coming; instead, its colors herald a time of quiet growth.  People say of winter that 'the earth is sleeping" and they shiver with that thought - How can it be asleep? Beneath the cold ground and snow so much growth is going on, so much magic, otherwise, how could the flower that makes its way up through the dirt in the spring be such a wondrous colorful healthy living thing?  I think Autumn's colors aren't a goodbye, but a celebration of the life cycle that never stops.  It's perfectly amazing, isn't it?  Enough to make one grown up woman get a little misty-eyed with the hugeness of it all, and the blessing that is ours, to be here, to see it, to be living in it...

Colorful golden brightness of red, orange, and yellow fall leaves Hot butterscotch carmel on vanilla icecream makes me screamVivid wild earthy mushroom odor circles the air above the fireCourdoroy pants swooch with movement as I rake the harvest foilageFallen tree-leafs rustle my heartfelt ideas in the sweet moment of Autumn. -----Burgundy 

Well said Andy, Paolas and Park4

Colorful golden brightness of red, orange, and yellow fall leaves****Hot butterscotch caramel on vanilla ice-cream makes me scream****Vivid wild earthly mushroom odor circles the air above the fire-pit****Cordoroy pants swoosh with movement as I rake the harvest foliage****Fallen tree-leafs rustle my heartfelt ideas in the sweet moment of a Autumn afternoon.----Burgundy

Colorful golden brightness of red, orange, and yellow fall leaves****Hot butterscotch caramel on vanilla ice-cream makes me scream****Vivid wild earthy mushroom odor circles the air above the fire-pit****Corduroy brown pants swoosh with movement as I rake the harvest foliage**** Fallen tree-leafs rustle my heartfelt ideas in the sweet moment of a Autumn afternoon.---Burgundy

3rd time a charm!!! Just wrote the poem...from outdoor fun today! Sorry for the two post mistakes..

For me, the smell and warmth of a burning pile of leaves is an E-tickets back to the neighborhood of my youth when all us kids would be drawn like moths to a flame for this autumn ritual.

I raked my yard today and piled the leaves by the curb for the city's 'leaf sucker' to pick them up. It just isn't the same. I did save many for mulch and many more to fall as the giant maples in front of the house are just starting to chang. The are always the last on my block to do so.

Fall is a bittersweet season yet it is my favorite.

It is bittersweet, isn't it?  As much as I find it heartening and as much as I'm taken by the cycle of life we're watching out our windows, there's a bittersweetness to it as well.  But you know, I think only romantics and otherwise sensitive types feel that, they're in tune with their surroundings more than most others who hear "AUTUMN"and their minds flip automatically to BRATWURST or something similar.  Sometimes I envy those people who think like that - it's easier isn't it?  But the thing is, either one is or isn't a person who smells burning leaves and thinks of past autumns and memories of what once was - neither is wrong or right, but never (rarely) does one change over into the other type.  ...  So breathe in the smoke and the memories but remember the seeds are already beginning to find their growing place down deep in Mother Earth.....  And god willing, we'll all be here to greet another apple luscious leaf-smoke autumn, next year on this very same date.   Life is good PL.  Life is good.  Trust me on this one.

Burgundy-nicely done
P4-what is natural and perfectly designed is natural and perfectly designed. Well stated.
I hiked a few miles then canoed 9 today and my arms are freaking tired. I saw a minimum of 25 blue heron and as many fly fishermen. The trout were active. The leaves were so incredible. MTSU where both of my kiddos attend beat Georgia Tech now Miss State should be a little puckered. My Vols are struggling.

TT ~ Several months back Jax and my wife attended a seminar at MTSU.  Too bad we missed you or your kiddos (it was summer break). I was the chauffer and spent my free time looking for a local bookstore that might have had a Tom Hicks classic on the shelf, but I struck out. Bought a smart phone instead.  My wife works concessions at Georgia Tech football to benefit our daughters drama club at school. It's good to know that we are running in the same circles. You clockwise, me counter clockwise.  One day if the laws of physics don't change we ought to bump into each other.

Miss Park4 Your 6:39 say it all, with clarity and purpose.  It is worth repeating.

It is indeed Southsider. It is indeed.

Overly tired I guess...... That would be Northsider of course

I've enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts today. Especially Spring's and Park4's...
I've been busy this past week~ Autumn means it's time to wean calves, cull cows, move hay...There is a lot of work to get done. No time to clean out the flower beds yet, no time to mulch the herb garden yet...It's more important to fertilize the wheat fields and kill the winter annuals...
My house is an absolute wreck! It resembles that of a frat house, maybe worse...I do have the option of having help getting it back in order, if I can squeeze in a day or two to get them here. It's always embarrassing to have my housekeepers see how messy we can be. So that's usually when I head outside to clean out the flower beds or straighten up the barn.
The beauty of it all is that I am mostly still outside in this gorgeous weather! Not too hot, not too cold...The sunrises and sunsets are incredible. It makes me appreciate where I live. At least for the time being. It won't be long and winter will change all that.