Tag: leaves

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

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“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

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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 †††
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