Forest Floor

Devils Lake State Park

Devils Lake State Park

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.
– Stanley Horowitz

A Walk in The Woods

The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Autumn in Red and Gold

Leaf Composition

Autumn…makes a double demand. It asks that we prepare for the future–that we be wise in the way of garnering and keeping. But it also asks that we learn to let go–to acknowledge the beauty of sparseness. ~~ Bonaro W Overstreet

Do others feel a pull to take this sort of photo every fall? Seems I always find a red leaf amongst all the golden and brown leaves, or an oak leaf caught in the autumn-brown tall prairie grasses. Always looking for the odd one out. The trees are close to bare. Naked branches. All the color pulled from the grasses. Cold winds blowing, whistling, teasing. Trying to hold on to autumn a while longer, yet silently acknowledging winter’s approach.

And yet, the crimson leaf makes me smile, if only deep inside my heart. Red leaf, heart leaf.

Golden Stems, Blue Sky

If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It’s a time of year when the leaves are down and  the harvest is in and the perennials are gone… it’s time to reflect on what has come before. ~ Michael Burgess from Northern Exposure, Thanksgiving, 1992

Prairie Thistle, Dressed for Autumn

UW Arboretum Prairie

UW Arboretum Prairie

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~~ Edwin Way Teale

Autumn’s light hangs low in the sky for only a few minutes as these days turn into night earlier and earlier. Most of the seed heads have had their seeds dispersed, but a few of the Prairie Thistle had most of their seed fluff still securely tucked in the plant. The plants all seem heavy with seeds this year. Will there be more flowers next spring?