Thursday, September 22, 2005

A little ode to fall

I read somewhere that what we consider "the leaves changing color" is actually not quite the case. That the true color of the leaf is the color you see during autumn, the leaves having stopped producing chlorophyll, which is responsible for the leaves' green color.

All we've been seeing throughout the spring and summer is the chlorophyll clothing, and it is only now that we can clearly see the uniqueness of each individual leaf. You can try as hard as you like, but undressed, you'll find no two exactly alike.

I think about this now, the leaves yellowing, the sun angle plunging, the gusty northerly winds, and I can start to see the face of fall.

Yesterday, I saw two sizable geese formations in the sky, scribbly cartoonish formations, and if you listen real hard, you can hear them honk honk honking to each other, "Which way?", "This way.", "Which way again?", "This way, over here."

The plumage is also changing on the birds. The starlings are getting blacker and shinier, all the better to soak up the limited winter sun (they stay here, and shun going south for the winter).

What do we need a calendar for, the sun is yelling at us, the trees are disrobing, the birds are on the move and changing clothes, the wind has tickle again.

Can you tell I love autumn?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you on this one. Love the imagery of the geese asking which way to go. Beauty-full.

dantallion said...

Fall is by far my favorite season. I can't wait to get up to the Laurentiens and spend some time kayaking in the mountains with leaves turning all around. *Sigh*.

Great post.

The Wisdom of Wislon said...

Lovely leaf story ;-)

Tree leaves seemed to change their colour to orange over night here. Gloomy dull day here at the mo. What's the weather like where you are?

Have a great weekend. I'm off to the big smoke- London .

epicurist said...

First off, great post and site. You really embued a sense of exuberance with this post. Quite lovely.

r said...

Fall.

I remember last year in Montreal, looking at the changing leaves. Just yesterday I was thinking about driving from Canada back to Albany, and seeing what seemed like millions of geese flying in the air.

Here, it's not Fall yet. Yes, we do get some color change, but usually it just goes from green to dry and dead to bare branches.

Although I too, like the bit of nip in the air.