Fall in my neck of the woods

Fall is at its peak this week.

The sweet gum trees are ablaze with coral,

and the dogwoods sport their crimson coats.

I have been marking the season's progress

in my own backyard and in the surrounding area.

A dogwood flares in the woods behind my house.

Grasses wave at the windmill presiding on the hillside

of a 125 acre private garden a little ways from my house.

Emerald green arborvitae contrasts with the yellowing

foliage of a bald cypress (the same trees that populate

swamps in the deep south. They are also native to this region).

My backyard glows on a bright morning.

A path is lined with boxwood at the aforementioned

private garden in the woods.

Classic southern Illinois views, looking out over the

Shawnee Hills.

Another dogwood on our property....

And another. The holly in the foreground seems so sharp

by comparison.




Oranges and yellows stand out amid the brush of greenery

still on the ground.

Moss lines the path deep in the woods.

Bittersweet vines from the woods make their way indoors.

I hope you are enjoying the many graces of this

season of evanesence.

Now is the time to take to the woods...

Winter will be here much too soon.

Until next time...

Anne

A Meditation on Earth Day

Today is Earth day, and a reverence for our blue planet is something I try to be cultivate all year long, not just once annually. In honor of the day, I spent some time in my garden after coming home from work. I took my dogs out into our woods for a romp. I made a dinner with fresh produce. All these things tie me to the rhythms and cycles of nature. The perennials in my garden come back as if on cue, heralding the arrival of spring and the progression of seasons. The trees in the woods are leafing out now, their barren silouhettes just a faded memory. Each year I spend a few weeks in awe of all the green around me. It is so thick it permeates my entire being. I am lucky to live in a part of the world that is so lush with plant life, and thus animal life. Every evening the barred owls in our woods call to one another in a warbly tongue. Tonight a gentle rain is falling, nourishing all life. As darkness falls, my thoughts become still. This poem from Mary Oliver strikes a chord:

Sleeping in the Forest

I thought the earth

remembered me, she

took me back so tenderly, arranging

her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens and seeds. I slept

as never before, a stone

on the riverbed, nothing

between me and the white fire of the stars

but my thoughts, and they floated

light as moths among branches

of the perfect trees. All night

I heard the small kingdoms breathing

around me, the insects, and the birds

who do their work in the darkness. All night

I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling

with a luminous doom. By morning

I had vanished at least a dozen times

into something better.

Happy Earth Day, Everyone.

Until next time...

Anne