Autumn Thoughts



"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

- Albert Camus

It doesn't seem to me that there are as many oak trees as there were when I was a child.

In my memory, they shade every sidewalk.

Walking to school in the fall was prettier and way more fun than walking politely past rose gardens in spring.

"You can't hide your true colours as you approach the autumn of your life."

-Anonymous

If only my soul looked like this! 

Or my hair.

 

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the

landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.

Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."

- Andrew Wyeth

Americans like the painter Andrew Wyeth, may feel reassured that something lies beneath the autumn path, some hope of spring.

In January, Canadians, who have a million miles of tundra hugging their backsides, aren't so sure.

"Come said the wind to

the leaves one day,

Come o're the meadows

and we will play.

Put on your dresses

scarlet and gold,

For summer is gone

and the days grow cold."

- A Children's Song of the 1880's

They surely do.

 

So buckle your seat belts eveybody, we're sliding into November!

***

Spiders, Insects, Weeds and Birds - Yikes!

Nature makes the transition to autumn before we do. Here are four sure fire ways you can recognize the changing of the seasons.

The creepy crawlies are trying to get inside to find a cozy home for the winter.

I had to wrestle this garden spider to the ground last night - right in my bedroom! I wasn't about to snuggle up with the big fella till next April. A girl has her standards. He spent the night in this glass jar and in the morning was given a stern lecture and quickly ushered back outside.

The monarchs are congregating in the trees getting ready for the long trip to Mexico. I counted fifteen on this one branch.

I wouldn't mind visiting them in Mexico round about the middle of January, but so far, although I have hosted hundreds, not one return invitation has been issued!

The golden rod behind the barn is as tall as I am. I can't think of a plant that causes more misery.

Okay, okay, I suppose poison ivy and poison oak cause more misery. Oh - and what about that new plant that is now in Ontario, Giant Hog weed? It looks like Queen Anne's Lace, but, and I'm sure I heard this on CBC, it is so evil it sucks your brains out through your nostrils if you try to sniff it.

















And the last sign.

It is a bit of a dire warning.











It happened almost three weeks early this year.

 

The martins are gone.