The Look and the Feel of Autumn

It is near the end of October. The wind has been blowing and the trees are being stripped of their leaves, but tonight the air is still, cold but still.

Out by our driveway there’s not much to be found of all those brilliant red leaves that adorned the maples earlier or the delicate red-orange of the sumacs, and the yellow leaves have now flown from the paper birches. In sheltered spots, like under the pines, there are patches of yellow and orange on maple saplings, the kiwi vine is just starting its shift from bright green to equally bright yellow, the bush behind the hydrangea has turned the most beautiful coppery red, and our burning bush is still burning, though the upper branches are now showing their tiny orange berries rather than the bright red leaves in the photo.

Before supper we walked around the Frog Pond. There were yellow pine needles on all the trails and yellowing leaves on the sawtooth and trembling aspens. We still saw a few red maples, and on the way to the house the oaks on either side of Purcell’s Cove Road glowed golden. When we drove over Mount Uniacke last Friday on our way to the Valley, there was not a leaf on a tree at that height of land, but it was a wonder to see the soft yellow-green of the needles on all the tamaracks. It is autumn here and the leaves are slipping away.

I am writing this for a young friend who lives in Istanbul and yearns for the colours of a North American autumn. We think of her often as we look at the various shades of the changing leaf colours and the light they cast over everything. An old friend used to say when she was looking and looking that she was collecting and saving images against her old age and her blindness. I also keep looking and looking even though I'm not really thinking of age or blindness, but I can’t look hard enough to allow that dear friend way over in Istanbul to see what I see. Since I don’t have much in the way of photos, I have to try to convey it through the images of these words.

The woodstove is on right now, the night is dark, and the bright autumn moon is moving toward full (check it out here – it's October 28). When you venture out, you can feel the dry coolness that our friend loves, air that makes you want to put on a good pair of socks and a jacket over your sweater. It is late October and we are near the end of our autumn colours, so if you are anywhere that has the look and feel of a North American autumn, think of our young friend who would love to be here in autumn, and get out and enjoy it, for her as well as for your own self.