Dear Reader:
Saturday I teased Kaitlyn and asked her if I could get her photo under the Bradford Pear tree because just a small handful of leaves had fallen, at that point, and I wanted a picture of her with the tree in all its shining glory.
Little did I know how true those words would ring in my prediction!
I saw on the weather channel where Sunday was supposed to be a rainy day…forefront to a cold front entering the low country and I figured I would lose a few leaves to the rain…but nothing prepared me for the sight I saw when I went out on the porch Sunday morning to turn off my lantern/lamp.
I simply gasped! Overnight at least half the leaves from the tree had fallen…it was windy and that, along with the ensuing rain, co-conspired to bring the leaves tumbling down.
Before and After:
I glanced over at my neighbor Vickie’s maple tree and was even more shocked! Hers had slowly started dropping leaves Thanksgiving day and now….gone…completely gone!
The more I looked around the neighborhood….the more unsettling the reality was…beautiful ginkgo’s and maples were now just memories…the fall beauty was gone for another season.
However, there is still much beauty in newly fallen leaves…soon they will darken, crinkle, and crumble…but for the first few hours…they look like gold from a fairy tale book…as in weaving straw into gold.
My child-like imagination has me raking up leaves as fast as I can and putting them in big barrels where they magically transform into gold coins. *Reality…raking up the thousands of leaves off that big Bradford Pear is going to be back-breaking work and no pay.
*(I have long learned not to rush the raking process. It is a lesson in futility if I do…might as well wait until the leaves all come down and let the leaves enrich the soil for a few days or weeks.)
I also learned something else while watching the wind and rain do its ‘clean-up’ act…stripping leaves from trees. When a large gust of wind blows and the leaves start dancing as they fall …with some scurrying down Rainbow Road….It reassures me that this act of nature isn’t a destructive ending…but simply a bright new beginning.…and the leaves appear merrily ready and happy to participate.
It is now time to rest…a long-deserved hiatus…so new seeds, underground, will sprout in the spring and green leaves will return to the trees… more beautiful than ever with their white and pink blossoms….fresh and bright. Sleep well autumn.
So until tomorrow….
“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh
BIG SHOUT-OUT! Christmas Open House
- I hope as many of you living in the low country can make it over to Anne’s house…there will be music, refreshments, and beautiful art pieces to put everyone in the Christmas Spirit! If you can’t make one day…come the next…but just COME! 🙂 Oh Come All You “Fun-Ful!” 🙂
- Sneak Peeks of two paintings of Anne’s from photographs from Paris
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
The pear tree has lost all of the leaves even though it took several days. Now…I’m hopping my son will just mulch them with his big mower and let the goods do their thing until Spring. But I remember playing in the big heap of fallen leaves in the fall .We made floorplans on the ground and played house .Simpler times.
I remember making “leaf angels” (since we rarely had snow) and sliding down hilly pine woods on extra large cookie sheet sleds as a small child.
It is a shock to see how quickly the leaves disappear…but before we know it we will see buds popping out again…
Susan and I were just talking about that…this year all it took was that windy cold front combined with rain and like a magical act…gone. Still lamenting a little…I wanted more time with fall and my pumpkins….oh well…slowly the transition will take place this week and then once the hard work is done…I will like it.