The Real Autumn

Autumn in the UK

I am constantly looking at pictures on G+ and on other sites of groves of trees with multi coloured leaves blazing in their autumn glory. The picture is most always taken half way along a lane with a few shadows on the ground or trails of sunshine flitting through the branches and leaves. Or another is being on the side of a tranquil lake looking over towards a deciduous forest crawling up the hill on the furthest bank.

All that can be seen is a natural mosaic of reds, browns, and copper. Surrounded by golden yellow that has the power strong enough to hurt your eyes in the bright sunshine. This is all taking place under a blue sky without a trace of cloud 

You are looking at death, because the leaf has had its half year of life. The leaf will not die a silent death because it shouts “Now look at me and stand back in awe.” The tree is taunting you with its beauty, because for six months you called it that old oak, beach, sycamore, birch and ash.

Those leaves that gave you shade during those hot days which you took for granted are leaving this world in a blaze of glory. Soon all that will be left is a naked tree with their branches reaching to the sky.

Are they giving thanks to Mother Nature for their time on earth, or are they praying for a short winter and an early spring.   

Mingled between these naked branches that are heard crying in the hard winds, there are still the odd evergreen trees. Now because of the death all about them their true beauty of their various greens can now be seen. Each green is as different as the clouds in the sky, but only now can you see them flaunting their magnificence.

 These trees are the life and soul of winter giving fruit freely to those birds and animals that are left to suffer the harshness of the frost, beating rain and snow. 

The close branches of green needles giving shelter to birds that failed for unknown reasons to fly south to warmer climates. The holly,the yew and rowen tree berries.  Red, and standing out like beacons to break the monotony of the evergreen foliage.

Autumn is not pretty and the sun very rarely shines in the UK in autumn, and if it does there are strong winds, heavy rains and in some cases frost and snow. The sky is in most cases a dirty grey with the trees in a mist.

 Those leaves that hit you in the face have probably not just fallen off the tree. In most cases they have been blown up off the dirty road or out of the wet hedgerow, autumn is a time of death and the dirtiest time of the year. It is just that we never take stock of the things that surround us only those things that please the eyes.

Autumn is a time when the nights draw in and the darkness comes that much sooner, to make us thankful that we are indoors. Near an open fire where everyone is wishing their lives away, as they beg for those warm summer days to return. We only see the beauty in nature and not the harsh realities and if we do? Then it is a blink of the eye in the timeline of our beautiful planet.

Be Well Ian