Drifting in Autumn

Come take a walk down to the dock and then back to the yard with me. If you have some lovely piano music on, as I do, all the better! Autumn is getting ready to say fairwell, so I wanted to be sure to wish her happiness on her journey as she passes winter. No talking, just walking. (As always, you can click on the photos for bigger views.)

Close Your Eyes

Close your eyes and drift outside as the seasons are shifting. I can smell the musty death of the fallen leaves and I can hear the acorns as they kerplunk to earth hitting both the slate stones on the path to the water and the dried leaves on the lawn. They are small and not as abundant this year, perhaps due to the small drought we have had.  Their shape is intriguing with the smooth and the rough.

The Canadians have arrived with their usual harshness, arguments, and swagger.  It is a long trip and they have lost their patience.

Sadly they remind me of the politics of our country. No compromise, just arguing.

The crows compete for attention with their calling from high in the trees or as they fly overhead.  They are usually the noisiest.  They love fall because they can see the owls in the trees.  A single Blue Jay cries from above telling everyone that I am there, acting like the chief safety officer of our part of the woods.  

I walk down to the dock where the sun can warm my backside.

The saltbush has just started to throw its white parachute of seeds to the wind. It sometimes looks like the first gentle snowfall of the year when a breeze comes by.  It is a hardy native and grows along the roadsides as well as in the wet.

The seasons are reassuring in that whatever we do, the earth is more resilient than we think and that is both a revival and tranquilizing. Others nearby remind me that they are too busy to enjoy autumn's richness right now.

The Sounds of the Morning

The quiet of fall is deceptive. The leaves fall and do barely whisper as they hit the ground or the calm surface of the water on an early incoming tide. The noises of the blue sky and the red berries are also very quiet. I sigh with pleasure as I sit on the dock, camera in hand.

Then in just a few minutes, the wild chatter of the kingfishers peirces the air as they fly from one side of the river back and forth ignoring any pursuit of food. Perhaps it is a fall territory thing? Ours are the belted kingfishers that sit so high in the trees I can barely capture them. They are hyper and the males are very territorial. The female is the fashionable one with the rust-colored belt.

Then a new noise occurs. It is the sound of the blue heron beginning his flight from the grasses. His/her cry is a gag, loud and shocking, and one wonders if someone is being strangled. So goes the quiet of the day.

The next to disturb the quiet incoming tide and crystal morning are the crows who appear to have found an owl far over the hill. They are angry and defensive and the owl sits in the distant tree and ignores them as if they were pesky flies. The crows are smart not to get too close. The sound far away takes no time to fill the quiet. Finally, mankind interrupts my peaceful morning. The "good old boys" are building or adding to a dock at the end of the river. Their sounds are small talk and laughter and infrequent commands. But their machinery overcomes all of the peace with banging and clanging.

Time to go back inside.

In the Beginning

If you are not a gardener or new to gardening you can be forgiven if you do not know the potential of seeds or the power of a single seed. Gardeners harvest their seeds and take care of them because they know that the future health of a plant and the harvest of that plant lie in how well we nurture those seeds.   Food for the next year or beauty for next year's table.  This is the time of the year when my house is full of small jars or envelopes of seeds.  Mostly flower seeds, but hubby sometimes saves pepper and tomato seeds.

Since I am a photographer I cannot pass up the chance to capture their beauty digitally.  Their shapes while different are a beautiful symmetry.  They are like ornaments to be dried and hung around the house or sewn to some fairy gown.