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Snapshots of Autumn/Fall
A favourite season for many
Listen…
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.
November Night, by Adelaide Crapsey (1878–1914)
Confetti of Fallen Leaves
Many people cite autumn, or fall if you’re on the other side of the pond, as their favourite season. It is a time to bring out sweaters and coats; to walk through woodland, under a relentless confetti of falling leaves, and to return to a warm home, where a bowl of hearty soup awaits, often with some sort of pumpkin or squash at its heart.
It is a time that foliage, once an almost uniform green, transforms into a spectacular mosaic of reds and yellows and browns, which fall to create a colourful carpet on the forest floor. And, just as the leaves have departed, so has the birdsong, which only recently was the soundtrack to a walk through the woods. Now, the echoing call of a solitary woodpigeon is the only sound to be heard above the incessant babbling of the river.
On a chilly morning, a schoolboy delivering newspapers leaves footprints on his first frost-covered lawn of the autumn. His exhalations are visible, as he…
