Autumn comes to Avren like a blessing from above. After the heat of the summer, the cooler air is refreshing. We can go about our daily business at a normal pace without fear of collapsing from heat exhaustion. The days of inactivity and slow motion are behind us for another year.
The nights are different too. The sky is much clearer and a million more stars have come out of hibernation to twinkle playfully for our enjoyment. Yet these clear nights carry a warning too. It is only a matter of weeks before the coolness turns to coldness, with icy cutting winds whipping across the plateau. It is just as well we can be more active as we prepare for winter.
The other afternoon I went for a walk with my camera to some nearby woodland. My plan was to capture some of the moods of autumn – I have posted my efforts in an album on my Flickr account. I was struck by how drastically the local landscape has changed since the summer, which I try to illustrate with the following photographs. So struck was I, that I felt the need to burst out into poetry…
Where once stood sunflowers hopeful and proud,
now lie broken stalks on the brown earth.Some may see this as a metaphor,
for a world in turmoil and decline,
but sometimes it is best not to think too deeply.It is a snapshot of how it is,
of how it has always been,
seasons changing, time relentless,
and who knows what will be?
