Winter has finally made an appearance in these parts, and its a beautiful thing.  I’ve missed the contrasting whiteness of snow along with the quilted layer of quiet it brings.  Let it snow!

I walked home the other night, in the daylight-savings-time early evening darkness, with sidewalks still strewn with leaves.  I felt like a little kid swishing through boot-deep mounds, the lovely sound of all that thrashing and rustling, the lingering pleasure of a lasting autumn.

Cue up Vivaldi (the “Danza Pastorale,” aka, Concerto No. 3 in F major, or more commonly known as “Autumn”) and the Four Seasons.

It’s fall and where I’m living there’s a slow explosion of colour (unlike the variation on dun that I’ve gotten used to the past years).

Interesting to note that the autumn change in colours is actually an unmasking, with the leaves showing their original, true hues.

As trees hunker down for the winter and pull energy inward, chlorophyll gradually recedes along with its green pigment and the fall palette of trees is splashed around in all its glory.

Along with a few images of the fall fireworks, a poem from Luci Shaw.

Does Fall Go Back?

Does Fall go back as far as Eden? Did the

Lord God say, “Good” to a beech leaf
bleached back to its primary yellow? Did
Eve dance, entranced, when the first
leaves on the first oak turned red as wine
and loosed themselves? Did Adam rake
the ground clean and burn the leaves
after his other Garden work?

Spent the unofficial last day of summer getting ready for the September season, a little biking in High Park, kicking back along the lakefront, seeing who would win the ice cream war – me or the heat (I did but barely), and watching the snowbirds put an exclamation point on summer 2012.

A few images of the fading summer – give a listen to Bob Dylan’s “Summer Days” or Belle and Sebastian’s “A summer wasting” as you enjoy these photos.