Changing Seasons

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

-- L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Oak leaf 9-30-14

"Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons."

-- Jim Bishop

Meadow 9-30-14

"I cannot endure to waste anything 

so precious as autumnal sunshine 

by staying in the house."

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks

Bench 9-30-14

I bitch a lot about the weather.

Winter is too cold, and too long.

Summer is never hot enough, or long enough.

Spring never comes soon enough.

Blah, blah, blah-de-blah.

But Autumn? You'll never hear me bitch about Autumn.

Autumn's arrival is glorious. Her stay is an ever-changing landscape of moving color. Even her departure is rather holy, cloaked in the sacred hush of Winter's first snowfall.

I took an impromptu walk in the woods yesterday. I was on a motorcycle ride, with the camera in my saddlebag. So I decided to stop and have a look-around.

Autumn in Ohio is just taking tentative, early baby steps.

Monarch 9-30-14

The late afternoon sunlight was streaming through the trees, spotlighting her first blush of colorful beauty.


A "V" of noisy geese shared space in the sky with a quiet crescent moon.

A ragged Monarch with tattered wings was loading up on last minute flower juice before making the big trip to Mexico.

As much as I love a good view of Autumn's grandeur through the visor on my motorcycle helmet, I have to say, it was equally lovely off the bike, up close through the camera lens.

It's a good thing I stopped.

Meadow grass 9-30-14