October 28, 2009

Golden

It rained all day, the kind of driving rain that forms puddles quickly and makes my front yard look like a cool place to fish. The sky was grey, as the skies here generally are in the late fall, and dark. I had errands to run. I drove Shaggy Hair Boy into the city to take his road test; I stood in the pouring rain for fifteen minutes while he took the test. I drove to the post office to pick up a package that had come for With-a-Why, only to find our little post office had closed for lunch. I went into campus to copy materials I needed for class.

Despite the grey skies and rain, the landscape I drove through was glowing yellow. Golden leaves hung from trees, blew across the road, spread wetly across lawns. I stopped on my second trip to the post office to snap a photo of one house that was completely surrounded by yellow leaves.

I had to wait at the post office — the postmaster had left a sign in the lobby that read “Back in a few minutes.” Another customer was already waiting, an older man. We chatted and looked at the back of my camera to see the photo. “Yeah, I drove by that house too,” he said. “Some years, I notice the red and orange maples, but this year, it’s the yellow that’s fantastic. It’s been a golden fall.”

Yellow

10 comments:

Kyla said...

Wow. We don't get fall like that here.

heidi said...

my favorite season

undine said...

I love the blue of the house against the gold of the trees. Thanks for posting the picture.

Dr. Brazen Hussy said...

I've been noticing the gold this year too, in a different part of the country.

BrightenedBoy said...

The reds and oranges have been magnificent here lately, but just today I noticed a lot of yellow around campus.

sherry said...

I visited the upper midwest last week. Having always lived in the deep south, the fall colors were odd to my eyes. But the yellow, wow. My daughter said that you all don't need fall sunshine, you get in on the trees and on the leaves that have fallen to the ground.

nimiecat said...

We're having the prettiest fall in the DC area that we've had in years! The leaves are amazing this year. What a beautiful picture. I would love to have a yard like that. Rake up the leaves in huge heaps and let my girls have a ball.

Michelle said...

Lovely photo. We're having a golden fall here in Michigan, the reds just haven't been as brillant this year.

Unknown said...

This is gorgeous every time I look at it. The description is supremely inviting too -- something about the combination of cool wetness and glowing yellow is super-inviting to this desert dweller.

Rev Dr Mom said...

I had to go to our state capitol today and I noticed how very golden it was in the neighborhood I was in there. Beautiful.

One tree in front of the church has been a beautiful reddish gold, but gold definitely has dominated this fall. Is it just this year, or is it that I'm in a new place?