Leaves

My love/hate relationship with leaves was in full mode today as I walked Lucy. That scratchy brittle sound so synonymous with the crispness of autumn so different from the silent falling of them that sometimes catches you unaware as you suddenly realize – the leaves have fallen! Crunching through masses of them still retaining their brilliant colors mingling with some that have dried to brown; the trees themselves still hold enough to cause you to stop in awe at the brilliant contrast to the October/November cerulean blue skies!

I love to keep the leaves through October for the sounds of them giving All Hallows Eve that eerie quality trick-or-treaters love as they slush through them going from door to door. And I love them at Thanksgiving – their sound like the song Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmothers House we go as my Thanksgiving guests arrive and I watch my grandson shuffling through them to get his hugs!

As I walk down Old Kings Highway South toward Town I heard the church bells ringing – what a unique sound – giving me a sense of peace as I soughed along through the leaves, my dog wagging her tail and sniffing at something my nose misses. Past the now not so secret "secret garden" where Eric and Mar were busy harvesting the last of the Swiss chard – perfect to add some to the soup simmering on my stove – thank you!

By December the opposite end of the relationship kicks in and I want them gone – a crisp serene emptiness that will be beautiful when covered by the first snowfall. But for now – the sun is brightly shining and the leaves are glowing, the silence is so full of peace that I feel patient as I await the time of frost, freeze and snow!

Nanci Natale
White Pumpkins