autumn solitude

Sunday afternoon I slipped outside before dinner and took a pleasant walk. By myself! That in and of itself made it all the more pleasant, but I had another motive in mind as well. I wanted to capture the [albeit slight] beginning of autumn in our little corner of the world. Aside from bright-blue-skied sunny days and cool-crisp-grab-your-sweater nights and mornings, not a lot is happening here autumn-wise. Blame it on longitude and latitude if you will, but I managed to find a few signs that autumn is indeed present and accounted for. I took lots of pictures, discarded my fair share of no-goods, and came up with a few favorites to share. Some are autumn-related; others are not. The whole lot of them is on Flickr if you'd like to see the rest.






During my walk I encountered a tree that had released its bounty of acorns absolutely everywhere. I found them in big heaps and also scattered across the sidewalk, the grass, the street. They were so compelling that I had to take some pictures, since autumn and acorns are such a pleasant mix.

See how the leaves are really trying to turn colors on this silver maple? I think it really wants to change colors. If it weren't so warm during the day, it might have more success. This tree was one of two trees I have seen that have actually begun the process of changing color around here. The trees are all still pretty green right now.

This one is not so much autumn, but I was pleased with how it turned out. I took many different shots and this is my favorite.