in search of Autumn

I did something this afternoon that I haven't done in a very long time--probably years. I dusted off my 'real' camera--my DSLR Canon Rebel--and did a walkabout in and around my house/yard, snapping pictures in search of Autumn.

It's here and has been for nearly a month. But it surely hasn't felt like it. Or looked like it. 

Too hot for Fall these past few weeks. Way too hot for October. Everything is dry and crisp and crunchy in my yard. 

Hard to get into the spirit of Autumn when it feels like Summer every day.

So I went outside with my camera because the sky was that deep blue you only see in October, and it was almost chilly with a nice cool breeze blowing now and then. 

It felt like Fall. Even if I did have on shorts and flip flops.

I took some pictures and here are some of them.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy doing this.

I think I'll do it again sometime. Soon. Maybe by then Autumn might be more recognizable.

Pale amber sunlight falls across
The reddening October trees....
Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then, let us dream...
~Ernest Dowson (1867–1900), "Autumnal"

Catch a vista of maples in that long light and you see Autumn glowing through the leaves.... The promise of gold and crimson is there among the branches, though as yet it is achieved on only a stray branch, an impatient limb or an occasional small tree which has not yet learned to time its changes. ~Hal Borland

"I’m dreading fall. It is a terrifying season," he says... "Everything shriveling up and dying." I don’t know how to answer. Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale. I’ve never thought to be frightened of it. ~Lauren DeStefano, Wither