Ode to Fall

Delicately dancing in, the fall began with colors splashed about like a child had spilled bits of paint.

 

One can almost imagine the imp dancing about, a bucket in one hand and paint brush in another. While bending over to quietly paint a leaf at the top of the tree, turning to and fro, angling this way and that, the bucket wobbles and bobbles, tips and tilts, and with each jolt a dollop of paint slops over the edge of the pot and onto the nearest leaf so that soona leaf here, a limb there, reds and ambers, gold, mustard and maize begin to appear amidst the lush green growth that have been with us for for the breath of a time called spring and summer.

 

 The days are yet temperate and we take advantage of the lingering sunlight for lengthy walks. 

We bask in the warm rays, reveling in the sparkling blue skies that shimmer between the treetops.  I glance up and see a splash of red as though the tree is leaking blooding, the urchin had been preparing the tree for Halloween perhaps? Hoping  it would be mistaken for a vampire in a few weeks...

September passes quickly by, and we are pleasantly surprised to find that October enters and Autumn remains...

Leaves are lingering on branches, colors vivid and ever changing. A unique happening in our experience here in Colorado. 

The vistas are showing the age of the season, increasingly brown and branches winter-bare yet the bitter cold keeps it's distance, as though it is being stayed by benevolence... "I know you," I whisper at the quiet. "You know no charity. What are we in store for?"  

(click on picture for full effect)

Yet the blue skies return and the lovely weather remains, the occasional sunglowed tree, brilliant.

Outside my front door, Apollo has graced our tree with a shade of his own imagining and the sky dances blue.   

Even when skies are grey with moisture and the air cool, the colors of this season remain striking. Au naturel Colorado follows the hues of green, gold and brown. The brilliant reds are imports, brought here by dissatisfied non-natives but have found their welcome. 

And with October nearing it's final days, it is remarkable to find, not just the autumned leaf but green leaves still aloft, dillydallying on their tree limbs as though there was a season of days of warm weather yet to come.  

The little ones that spilt the paint, have covered their mistakes well now. The tree's dappled splashes have been blended into a glorious gold or saffron or amber.

and then gave up their resplendence for russet, bronze and tans. Leaves fall on paths that await me and waters not yet frozen, run icy cold from the night's chill.