Hints of Color

I took a hike at French Regional Park yesterday. And while from a distance the landscape seemed stark and gray, if you looked closely you could see

Hints of Color

remaining here and there along the trail.

I was fascinated by a few remaining willow leaves along the path. The leaves and stems created what looked like an abstract painting of russet, green and gold.

Reflections of trees combined with a thicket of willow branches and floating leaves created another abstract painting to my eyes.

Along a marshy area I found some stems that stood out against a background of brown cattails. By selecting a very shallow depth of field I was able to blur out the background while keeping the colorful foreground stems in focus.

The beauty, shapes, and colors I found were subtle but oh so welcome to my eyes. As we fade to the grays and browns of November I enjoy seeing little pops of color here and there.

Fall Song

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this Now, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries — roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time’s measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay — how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

   — Mary Oliver

While it saddens me to see the colors fade, the November days have their own stark beauty. Can you find hints of color and beauty in these November days when the colors fade and our world seems like it is painted in shades of brown and gray?

May you walk in beauty.