Lily Pads and Maple
Fall is the season when you can most sense that the earth is hurtling through space. While the rest of the year there is a feeling of time passing, of seasons spinning by (except maybe the icky part of winter, when everything seems to stall), in the fall, there's a big lurch in speed. It's like Mother Earth stomped on the accelerator. I think this is because there is a distinct change in the light. Spring meanders in so reluctantly, and is always so gradual. Though the light is getting stronger and the days are getting longer, there's no sudden change in the quality, or color, of light. In autumn, it’s as if we’re suddenly looking through a different lens, or a colored filter: “Golden autumn,” which looks like no other time of year.
Calligraphy
The earth moves through space at about 66,000 miles per hour. It rotates at around 900 miles per hour. If ever you want to experience just how fast the earth is moving, set up a basic telescope or pair of binoculars on a tripod. Focus on the moon. And watch how, just as you’re getting it all lined up, the moon keeps slipping sideways, out of view . . . .
I watched a yellow blizzard of black walnut leaves swirl to the ground the other day. The swallows have already left. The sun peers in my windows in the morning and the evening, instead of sailing high over the roof. But most of all, this is the season of leaves. This is when they dance. This is their show time. Even the neon green of early spring growth can’t compete with the whirling, twirling crashing out of leaves finally set free.
I watched a yellow blizzard of black walnut leaves swirl to the ground the other day. The swallows have already left. The sun peers in my windows in the morning and the evening, instead of sailing high over the roof. But most of all, this is the season of leaves. This is when they dance. This is their show time. Even the neon green of early spring growth can’t compete with the whirling, twirling crashing out of leaves finally set free.
Autumn Mood
One of my favorite things about autumn - and it doesn't last for long at this rapidly spinning time of year - is the leaf shadows. In summer, tree shadows are very dense and opaque and massive. In the winter, the tree shadows are linear and spidery. In glorious fall, though, just enough leaves have fallen to create lacy, intricate patterns which move in the breeze.
Such an ephemeral delight, at a time when the world's dance seems to be all about movement and power.
Such an ephemeral delight, at a time when the world's dance seems to be all about movement and power.
Photogram - Grasses
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