Autumn Thoughts

Firstly, I am delighted and amazed that my entry "How I Did It" has been picked as Journal entry of the month. Thanks to Jules for letting me know because I had no idea. It is a nice feeling and given me a real buzz.

The last Roses are blooming, a vivid splash of colour to brighten the fading leaves and withering Annuals

 

but now is the time for

 

I love the blaze of the berries and the turning of the leaves although this year the trees are holding their colour as it has been mild on the whole.  The first tinges of gold, brown and red are only just dancing around the fringes and I look forward to the full fiery display.

 

The Ice Plants are blooming late this year, too late for the Butterflies that love them but how we welcome any blooms in this darker season when the mornings are slow in awakening and the evenings draw in so quickly.

When I went into the garden yesterday to take these photographs, it was a lovely morning. sun crisp and bright, sky light blue.  The grass was wet with dew and looked as if it had been tipped with silver. There was a smell to the air that you only get in Autumn.  A smell of damp earth, dying vegetation and yet freshness. You really cannot put it into words but Autumn has a scent all of its own.  As I stood there looking around, it  took me back many many years to when I was a very young child and to the nature table we had at school.  There was always a nature table in those days (I wonder if they still have them nowadays?).  It would be at the front of the class on one side of the teacher, a long wooden table.  There was always a vase of something in the middle. In the Spring it would be Pussy Willow or Daffodils, in Summer, Roses. Autumn brought sprays of Berries and Winter nearly always Holly.  In Spring there would also be an aquarium where we watched the Tadpoles develop their legs and gradually , so gradually turn into minatureFrogs. Children had to collect things for the nature table and we vied with each other as to whom could find the brightest and biggest Autumn leaf, the reddest and shiniest Conker. We were encouraged to look at nature and find things for ourselves.  Maybe that is where my love of Flora came from.  I would walk to school on misty Autumn mornings looking in hedges, even in gutters for fallen leaves, examining trees and plants to see what I could find as my offering.

Most of all I loved the Spider's webs.  Hung with thousands of crystal droplets that shimmered in the weak sunshine like so many diamonds or stars that the dew had formed.  They were magical to me as were, later on, when winter came, the snowflakes that we caught on black pieces of cloth and looked at through magnifying glasses. No two crystals the same and patterns so delicate and intricate it took your breath away.

So, the seasons change as the world revolves and we revolve with it, yet mother nature always gives us something. Even on the darkest, gloomiest and often wettest day, you can see something, some little spark of beauty that enhances all our lives. I always take the time to stop and look. In a sad world, beauty is precious.