The Beauty of Autumn

One of the good things about living in Missouri is the colorful display we are treated to in the fall season. Something that the Florida branch of my family says they really miss are the changing seasons. They even miss snow. Snow I could get along without very well. But autumn, that is another story all together. It has always been my favorite season.

This is a new community where I now live, and there are no older, large trees; though plenty of smaller new ones. These smaller trees have had their share of color this year, and the leaves are now beginning to fall on the ground and blow about.

Among the shrubs that were planted were a number of fire bushes around the back side of the apartment building. They are starting to lose their leaves, but they have been absolutely beautiful, and they still have a lot of red left.

When we moved to the country after retirement, I planted some forsythia and fire bushes along the front of the property, by the road. The deer decided the fire bushes made a good meal and nibbled them almost to extinction until my husband put wire cages around the bushes. Then they were able to grow to a size that the deer left alone. They never attained the beauty of the ones we have here. Perhaps the forsythia bushes didn’t have as tender branches because the deer didn’t chew on them, just the fire bushes.

Earlier this morning when I went over to drop some mail in the outgoing letter box, it was quite cool and windy when I crossed the street to the apartment building. Sometimes the street seems like a wind tunnel the way the wind blows through it. However, this afternoon I walked over to pick up the mail, then went for a walk around the area and the weather had changed since morning. It was much warmer, the wind was ‘softer’ and my eyes feasted on the available colors, especially the red fire bushes. All in all, a beautiful fall day.

In years past, one of the things I enjoyed doing was taking drives around various parts of the state to see the beautiful fall colors; lunching somewhere along the way, then returning home tired, but satisfied with what we had once again glimpsed of God’s beautiful world. I can’t make those trips anymore, but I’m grateful for what is still available to me.