Tag Archives: beauty

fun, general-post, nashville

A different kind of “color run”

362: Brilliant leaves

I dropped my husband off at the bus lot this morning to drive this weekend. He had the weekend off, but he was offered a fill-in gig as a bus driver for the next couple of days. Going into winter, you take every gig you’re offered when you’re offered it.

This meant seeing the sunrise as we drove north on I-65, a sight that we just never see given the night owls that we are. We see sunsets, but rarely do we see sunrises.

After I dropped him off, I got to experience something else I rarely get to see. The early morning sunlight (as any photographer will tell you is some of the most amazing light you’ll get to experience) dancing with the fall leaves on all the trees.

We’ve already had our first freeze of the season, and as such the leaves on almost all the trees have turned brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red. It’s beautiful any time of day, but that morning sunlight transformed them into something extra special… something almost magical. I was as enamored with them as a child is with fireworks. They are gorgeous. Stunning. Awe inspiring.

I chuckled to myself as I called my run to and from the bus lot a “color run” of a different sort. (Referencing, of course, my participation in the 5K last month.) One I don’t have to shower after, and one made by God’s own hands. We had bad storms on Halloween, but those have long passed now. Now we are left with a beauty that only the fall season can bring.

Next time you head out, take a moment to take in the changes of the season. Take a moment to go on your own little color run. Enjoy!

general-post, memories, nashville, texas, weather

My obsession with Fall

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Fall leavesIf you search my Flickr photostream for the word “Fall” you get 136 photos back… a lot when you consider that I’m pretty sure I’ve failed to tag all my fall photos with “Fall” and I’ve only been seriously keeping up my Flickr page for about three years.

Growing up in Texas, Fall basically meant football season. The temperatures would go from sweltering to warm with the occasional chill in the wind. Past that, Fall = Football. Period.

Oh okay, it meant a bunch of birthdays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. And school pictures. But past that? Fall colors were what you saw only by cutting out construction paper leaves. You saw them in decorations bought at arts & crafts fairs. Or you saw them in magazines and on TV. But in Texas? It just goes summer leaves to no leaves at all in the blink of an eye. No magical color change.

Then I moved to Tennessee.

I still remember I had just recently moved here, and I was driving to our apartment from the store and I was struck by the colors all around me. I called my brother to squeal on his voicemail about how pretty it was. I don’t know why that memory remains with me, but it does.

Fall tends to not love me back. I get a yearly sinus infection, and I end up staring out the window at the pretty in misery. But it never stops me from still anticipating the season with glee.

My first visit to a "pumpkin patch" in 2006

Pumpkin patches to visit. Corn mazes to traverse.

There’s Pumpkin Spiced Lattes to drink.

Its time to get out warmer clothing.

And the colors… oh the colors! It starts with a little tinge of color in a tree here and a tree there. Then you start to notice all the trees are slowly changing from green to reds, yellows and oranges. The leaves that have already fallen crunch under your feet as you walk through the grass, and they speckle the drive way with their brilliant beauty.  Sometimes when the wind blows, they fall around you like glitter.

My husband and I like to go on drives through the country to look at all the colors. Those construction paper leaves of elementary school have nothing on the real thing! I stare out the window — be it my living room window or the passenger side window of our truck — in awe. Mesmerized by the changes this season brings.

We’ve had our first freeze warning of the year… though the extreme cold is short lived for now. We’ll be back in the 70s this weekend, just in time for a group trip to a corn maze where we’ll laugh and get lost among the cornstalks. A hayride will make us feel like kids again, and a cup of apple cider will warm the soul as much as the tummy.

Yes, Fall is definitely my favorite season of the year. And I plan to enjoy everything I can about it before winter gets its grip on the area.