Embracing the autumn

Hallo birdsong, hallo dark blue of unlit morning, and cool air, and gently dripping leaves.  I have lights to shine my way here, sitting under the bare hawthorn with my feet floored by its leaves mingled with oak.  It has been so wet but in between the sky opens and we can journey forth again with ease. 

Some gardens still have flowers but mine has embraced autumn fully and is a garden of leaves, green of laurel and ivy and fern, yellow of birch and brown carpeting the green grass.  Yet brown doesn’t do them justice for they shine with orange and amber, darkening to mahogany when wet.  The oak doesn’t live in my garden, it is right against my fence but its branches and bearing fill a huge corner; it is undoubtedly lord of this domain.

Autumn and spring are moving seasons, changing from or to the fullness of winter or summer.  Autumn has as much growth and beauty as spring.  Colours change to lemon or amber or ruby, shapes are revealed and winds blow loose leaves into dances in the air.  Wind seems more a feature of autumn and spring than the settled months, scurrying the leaves and clouds, hurrying change.

I have been here twenty minutes and the sky has turned from deep blue to shining grey back-lit with muted light, so slowly that I didn’t notice it happening but here I am at the beginning of the day.