Thursday, November 26, 2009

Fading

J.R.R. Tolkien's elves divided the year into six seasons, not four. Between autumn and winter came fading, an ebb in the tide of nature.

Halfway between the cross-quarter day of Samhain (Halloween) and Yule, the trees at Nagog Hill Orchard stand bleak and bare under a gray November sky, so very different than that of early fall.

These two trees:

are the same as these:

3 comments:

  1. Well, we're not quite there yet; it will be another month and a half before we shut down for a couple weeks, then Anna kicks it off again blossoming the end of January. Kind of wish we had a rest...

    Click on http://kuffelcreek.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/late-fall1.jpg

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  2. Kevin, Southern California has seasons? (Just kidding!)

    One of the things I love about New England is its dramatic cycle of change from season to season.

    Still, this time of year, when the light fails and all grows gray and bleak and cold, is not my favorite. It is the ashes of Fall's bounty.

    Kevin's very different late fall is here.

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  3. Yes, we have two seasons; Summer, and (thank God) NOT summer. We look at the end of summer the way most Mid-Westerners look at the end of winter. Winter to us is pretty much a very extended glorious fall day; people see this on TV during the Rose Parade on New Year's day while enduring an ice storm, and decide to move to California. Then summer comes along with heat, smog, and dust, and suddenly they long for back East again.

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