Tag: leaves

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #883 – The simple pleasure of a leaf !

S0124527 ©

“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.”      Henry David Thoreau

I am still getting used to the color green that dominates our landscape. I have just been in Denison TX for a little over a year. In that span of one year we have darn near had as much rain as I saw in 20 years of  West Texas.
 It brightened my day when I found some leaves that sported a bit of a warmer color.
 It is pouring again today. My rain gauge shows 2″ so far. Somedays I do so miss the desert.
monos en theos † james

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #866- Autumn falls

141030walk_7008 copy

My Autumn Leaves

“I watch the woods for deer as if I’m armed.
I watch the woods for deer who never come.
I know the hes and shes in autumn
rendezvous in orchards stained with fallen
apples’ scent. I drive my car this way to work
so I may let the crows in corn believe
it’s me their caws are meant to warn,
and snakes who turn in warm and secret caves
they know me too. They know the boy
who lives inside me still won’t go away.
The deer are ghosts who slip between the light
through trees, so you may only hear the snap
of branches in the thicket beyond hope.
I watch the woods for deer, as if I’m armed.”
                                                                  BRUCE WEIGL
Along with the coming of November comes our first frost…
stay warm & young at heart…†…monos en theos…jim

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #847…Hints of Red

14-09-20water_5616 copy

Having moved from Southwest Texas to North Central Texas, we really went from one extreme to another. We moved almost as far from one corner of the state to the other. From the Rio to the Red.

One of the pleasures has been the actual slow approach of fall. We seem to really have a fall. Well. as much as one could expect in Texas. Southwest Texas always seemed like to shift from hot to a week or two of comfortable coolness and then wham, a “blue norther” would blow in and every leaf went from green to dead.

I am relaxing with the slowness of North Central Texas. We are closer to East Texas and people just move at a slower pace. I have a theory that it has a little to do with how mother nature moves. I think the people, like the leaves, grow to reflect that movement.

So, I am enjoying the slowness of the coming of Winter and getting to rest in the reassurance of slow change.  Green to red is much nicer than green to dead. I trust that it works with humans as well as leaves!

None the less, I am getting the fireplace ready for use…†…monos en theos…jim

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #838 – Change, Why is It so Hard?

14-09-20water_5608 copy

We have yet to have any really cold or fall like weather, yet the leaves seem to know it is time for change.

I can say it. I can feel it. I can listen to Sam Cooke tell me that “A change goin’ to come”. But, why is it so hard. I sometimes wish I could adapt to my surroundings and change like the leaves.

Yet despite the want and the know, I cling to what I am. I most often feel that I don’t quite fit in. Not from the lack of trying. I feel like a river that has been dammed.

“You don’t have to fear change. What you need to fear is things remaining the same. When that happens, life has stopped.” Melody Beattie

monos en theos…†…jim

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #613 – FALL CREEPS IN

13-10-31 leaf_2912 13-09-20 leaves_0862 copy 13-09-20 leaves_9942 copy DSC_4101 13-10-21 PUMPMPOM_2541 copy

When I was a photographer at the Dallas Morning News, I was always submitting “picture” stories to the editors. One day one of them told me, that as a photographer my job was to tell the story in one image. A series of photos took up too much space, which was needed for advertising.

I would like to ask that editor today, how did that work out for you ? I am now my own editor and here in West Texas, we have lots of space. Fall is spread as distant as the trees. So here is a little taste of fall, all from my yard.

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day!
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree…
~ Emily Brontë

Find some peace in the midst of a “fall”.  ††† en theos ††† jim

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #598 – Trying to get a grip on fall

DSC_1893

Fall, leaves, fall

BY EMILY BRONTË

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
Peaceout ††† en theos †††
Untitled-1
John10:10

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #593 – Leaves fall atop our lives.

13-10-10 pm walk_1912 copy

 Men Improve with the Years

I AM worn out with dreams;
A weather-worn, marble triton
Among the streams;
And all day long I look
Upon this lady’s beauty
As though I had found in a book
A pictured beauty,
Pleased to have filled the eyes
Or the discerning ears,
Delighted to be but wise,
For men improve with the years;
And yet, and yet,
Is this my dream, or the truth?
O would that we had met
When I had my burning youth!
But I grow old among dreams,
A weather-worn, marble triton
Among the streams. 
William Butler Yeats

 

A nice fall morning, no sunrise, covered in clouds that drift into and over my heart. Questions of dreams dropped by Yeats weigh upon me. ††† en theos ††† jimwork

Images of small things from the biggest county in Texas #536 – Raindrops on the heart

1386Grasshooper_6999 copyA

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”
Langston Hughes

Baby the rain must fall, wish we had some now ††† en theos ††† jim work

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #188

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”… John Muir

Climb the mountains, drop your leaves on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim