Autumn Leaf Of The Day #2

 “Autumn is a love affair with the earth, where every leaf is a love letter.”

 
~Jayita Bhattacharjee 

 

 

Welcome Delicious Autumn, 2025

 

“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.”

 

~Stephen King,

  ’Salem’s Lot

 

And Autumn begins. I love beginning the season with one of my favorite Stephen King quotes, and it also happens to be one of my favorite books. I fits. Although this year, it seems that summer wasn't as treacherous as previous years. I am almost... almost... feeling sentimental about it. It was like summer found it's empathy. Maybe that was it's treachery this year, or maybe it was just it was giving me a break, as it let me transition from such deep grief at losing my Hendrix, to my immense joy at finding two more loves in Simon and Tyler. But Autumn is here, and with each day to come, I will feel better and better. Autumn always heals me. And I never have to guess at it's motives!

 

Check back later today for the very first, Autumn Leaf Of The Day, for 2025! 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #55

 

“You must remain. I must depart.
Two autumns falling in the heart.” 

~Buson 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #33

“Anyone who has ever canoed on the upper Missouri River knows what a welcome sight a grove of cottonoods can be. They provide shade, shelter, and fuel. For Indian ponies, they provide food. For the Corps of Discovery, they provided wheels, wagons, and canoes.
Pioneering Lewis and Clark scholar Paul Russell Cutright pays the cottonwoods an appropriate tribute: 'Of all the wetern trees it contributed more to the success of the Expedition than any other. Lewis and Clark were men of great talent and resourcefulness, masters of ingenuity and improvisation. Though we think it probable that they would hae successfully crossed the continent without the cottonwood, don't as us how!”

 
~Stephen E. Ambrose,

 

  Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America's Wild Frontier  

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #1

 

Galt, California

September 2023

 

"That old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air... Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning as if last year's mistakes had been wiped clean by summer."

 

~Wallace Stegner

Angle of Repose

 

 

 

 

Canada Geese, Late In The Day. Plus Leaf #5

 

"If, of all the seasons, there is a season in which a person completely forgets himself and constantly watches the magical environment, it is undoubtedly autumn!"

 

~Mehmet Murat ildan

 

 That old familiar song... honk... honk honk. I am not completely sure what the geese are saying, but it sure sounds like, I love autumn, to me!

 

 

~Me

 

Cottonwood Leaves And 9/11

"Only with a leaf, can I talk of the forest."

~Visnar Zhiti

The Condemned Apple: Selected Poetry

I know what the day is, it's 9/11.

 I have posted a remembrance of those lost, September 11th 2001, on this blog for years. David and Lynn Angell are, of course, in my thoughts, as are other's lost that day, but I think this year I am going to remember and reflect in private. I will speak about why, in time, maybe after November 3rd, but this year, for the first time, I just want to be thankful to those we lost that day by remembering in silence. I will also be remembering John Ritter, lost to us on September 11th, 2003. He was brilliant, and I still miss him so much.

For this post I thought I would share two beautiful leaves I found in the yard Wednesday. Cottonwood is quickly becoming one of my favorite leaves to photograph in autumn. While they don't have an especially striking color, as some leaves in autumn do, they are a deep green until autumn, when they turn a pretty lemon color, the tree is fairly interesting and the lemon color is quite pretty. As the leaf ages on the ground it becomes a light brown/red in color. As it becomes more brittle, they tend to get a lacy appearance. It's a beautiful leaf in it's own way, and I am happy to have been able to learn about more about the leaf and tree. I am probably going to feature the Cottonwood as my first, Leaf Of The Day, for this year's project. It would make sense, in that I have one next door that provides me with so many leaves to choose from. 

We'll see.

 ~Carly

September 11th, 2020

Stockton, California

A Silver Cottonwood

"Every Winter, when the great sun has turned his face away,

The earth goes down into a vale of grief,

And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,

Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay... 

Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses."

~Charles Kingsley

Saint's Tragedy

I am becoming a big fan of cottonwood leaves. They have a lovely shape to them, but they don't produce much color. In summer they are a pleasant enough green, rather medium, I think, and then in autumn they turn a light beige color. They become fragile quite early in autumn, and therefore picking them up is something you can't rush. If left alone, they decompose fairly quickly, within a couple days or so, and when they do, they can transform themselves from that beige, to an almost silver color. It's quite striking as a metaphor for the inevitable end of another year. As always, here I sit in January, and instead of celebrating the newness of the year, I am still seeing the death of the previous season and date on the calendar. Another autumn gone.

Winter's Soggy Cereal

January 16th, 2019

Stockton, California

Nikon

~Mood: Quiet

~Me