END OF AUTUMN

The poignant end of autumn's beauty lingers in the roadside palette. 

Rain soaked leaves vibrate with their remaining colour,  

dribbling and dropping splashes from an artist's palette, 

until there is a 'Jackson Pollack' style painting on the road's dark canvas. 

Brown, the quintessential colour of age and decay dominates now.  

Leaves, once colourful, have shrivelled and fluttered in despair to the ground. They lie sadly in puddles or ruffled to the side of the road where, with other aged leaves,  they rim the road with a strip of multi-hued brown.

Red, the colour associated with this season, no longer brightens the trees. Faded red leaves can be found on the road verge, adding a dull tone to the predominant browns. 

Occasionally a bright sparkle catches our eye, and leads to a smile on our lips as we remember the array of colours on the trees just days earlier.

Yellow  lingers the longest.  It creates a visual display of tints and shades  ranging from the saturated chrome yellow to the palest straw yellow. Yellow reminds us of the warm sun of summer that during autumn fades gently into the bright chill of winter.

This year we have enjoyed a determinedly pedestrian autumn. 

 It is November, and  the weather remains pleasant,   Swatches of colour remain on some trees and bushes,  and speckles the road. 

A long autumn, like this, is a joy and a blessing. It's a time to be thankful for our warmer seasons, and gives us time to prepare for our cold season.  In the midst of it, we can enjoy a multi-hued landscape.