pictures of fall foliage

Today’s temp was in the low 50’s and a covering of thick cloud hung low and gray. Rain is coming, along with wind through the night and all day tomorrow and into the weekend. I’m guessing that by Sunday, much of this season’s foliage will have have been washed or blown away.

So, with a very moody sky overhead, I took my wide-angle lens out for some final foliage shots. These images capture the gloomy feel of the warm season’s end at the pond.

The picture above is taken from the back side of the island. This winding view is one of my favorites – it gives a momentary sense of a river flowing when I glimpse it.

With the camera sitting on the bank, I clicked this critter’s view. It’s a big place, this pond world.

A final glance back as I leave the pond, it sends a chilly farewell and lets me know that winter is well on its way. It won’t be long before this water has a thin ice on it.

At a bit of a loss for words to express the feel of the transition into fall, I draw upon a source recently brought to my attention by an aunt – who is a bona fide naturalist! She has introduced me to a book by Donald Culross Peattie, entitled An Almanac For Moderns. The book was published in 1935 and is a daily journal of observations of nature and its ways.

Here is the first paragraph of Mr. Peattie’s entry for October 1:

“Now the autumn colors march upon their triumphs. So still the woods stand, against the faultless blue of the sky, they seem like windows dyed with pigments meant to represent all the riches and display the history – pointed windows blazing with trumpeting angels, blazons and heraldic glitter, intricate, leaf-twined illumination, depth of holy gold within temporal scarlet, soft gleaming chalices encrusted with ruby and topaz, cloths of bronze and ells of green, embroideries of crimson, twists from the vats of saffron and Tyrian and fustian.”

A day comes, sometimes before the actual turn of the season on the calendar, when one tiny hint announces the fall. It might be a subtle dulling of the colors, or one striking, dramatic leaf upon the ground.