Autumn's Splendor

The days continue to fly by us and according to the calendar we have already spent our first month of the glorious season of Autumn.  A beautiful time of the year it is, with trees still filled with leaves that have changed into their true colors of red, orange, golden yellow and brown.  Last weekend I noticed that with all of the wind and cooler temperatures we have been seeing here along the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains that many of the leaves have already begun to fall down to the ground below. It just seemed a good time for me to take a picture of a few of them while I still could and so I did just that.  They change so quickly it would seem, going from adorned in color to pretty much bare over night.  

Aspens with just a few leaves remaining near Silverthorn, Colorado early last week.

A beautiful grove of them I see each day as I head to school at Olathe.

Not even sure what kind these are but it doesn't matter.  The "kind" they are is absolutely gorgeous.

I'm not all that crazy about Winter, the season that perpetually follows Autumn and in the "dance of the seasons" I have always felt that Old Man Winter was kind of bossy and pushy, always wanting to cut in before his real spot on the dance card arrives.  The appointed date and time for its arrival has always been the 21st of December but sometimes, for lack of nothing else to do I suppose, it decides to show up ahead of schedule much to the chagrin of folks just like me.  Not much we can do about it except to accept it and plow through it, both literally and figuratively.  My little sister's birthday is the first day of winter and she has always loved it.  Not me.  Not ever.  Not in a million years.

In the years past, I have tried to make some peace with wintertime and the accompanying weather it brings us.  Back home in Kansas we had to get used to all kinds of heavy snowfall and wind, both recipes for ensuing blizzards.  There was ice, sleet, freezing rain and the inevitable power outages that went along with it.  But we survived because, well because we had to.  It wasn't my favorite time of year but I always vowed to outlast it and miraculously enough, I did.  I spent my very first winter living in Colorado last year.  I wasn't sure what to expect of it and because I am such a non-fan of cold and snowy weather, many of my friends back in Kansas and elsewhere were surprised that I would even consider moving here.  After all, this part of the world is known for snowy winters, and skiing, snowboarding and a plethora of other snow filled activities.  The part of the state we live in, along the Western Slope side of the great Rocky Mountains, is down into a valley and it seems that geographical feature offers us a bit of protection against the greatest downpours of snowfall.  Having said that, I suppose that this winter we will receive snow by the boatloads.

Although we did get snow last year, it didn't seem all that much worse than living back in south central Kansas.  The worst part, at least for me, was the knowledge that if I wanted to get back home there to visit family and friends I would have to travel over the 11,000 feet pass at Monarch Mountain.  Monarch is at the top of the Continental Divide, another geographical feature around here that does just that~it divides the continent.  I made the journey over it at least 3 or 4 times during the snowy season last year and had no issues.  I watched the weather and planned accordingly.  The only time I was caught off guard in my journeys back and forth between my old home back there in Kansas and my new home here in Colorado, was when I found myself in a ground blizzard between LaJunta and Lamar, Colorado.  I made it but it was not the funnest of things to do on an early Friday morning in the dark.  

Of course, only someone foolish would try to say that there is no beauty in wintertime because of course, there really is.  It's just that I prefer to admire it from within the house where it is nice and warm.  I've tried to see some of that in photos I have taken over the last few years and when I really get cranky about yet another dumping of snow or layer of ice all over everything, I can take a look back at those pictures and remember that the same Creator who makes the leaves turn colors also spreads the white stuff all over the ground in a billowing snow white  blanket of moisture.  That same moisture, when it melts, provides much needed precipitation around these parts.  A good thing to remember when I find myself bellyaching too much about the inconvenience I feel it sometimes provides.

Our yard last year after receiving 15 inches of snow one week in December.  Looking off towards the San Juan Mountains that are now covered not only in snow but beautiful rolling white clouds as well. Didn't hang out much laundry that week!

The sun tries its best to come out and shine a bit during the very late afternoon hours one weekend this past February.  Its attempt cast an eery glow in the sky but made a beautiful image just the same.

Last year in very early December after slip sliding home from school one day.  My Grandma Scott would have said to me, "Peggy Annie, you get inside the house before you freeze stiff a grinnin!"  

Today is the 21st day of October in the year 2014.  There will be no snow today, at least here in this part of the world.  Wherever you are, I hope you find some pretty fall colors to see as you busily go about your day.  I hope you slow down a bit, just like I did, and admire them for a while.  I never thought so much about Autumn until I found my own self in that "season" of life.  In the years to come, I will find Winter.  Maybe then it really won't seem all that bad after all.  Perhaps I only thought that it was.