When I Fell in Love with Autumn

When I fell in love with Autumn

As we drove along the beautiful Sandhills Scenic By-way marveling at the amount of fall color this year, I remembered when I fell in love with Autumn.

As a child on the ranch, Spring was my favorite season by far. The warming sun. Shedding heavy coats. The greening of the meadows and pastures. The babies! How I loved all the babies. Colts, calves, kittens, chicks, even the piglets.

But when I went to college in Omaha, I discovered Autumn. Standing on the back step of the residence hall, I felt the cooling breeze, the less humid air. And, I beheld the city dressed in the riotous colors of thousands of trees in Autumn hues. Reds and oranges and yellows and golds against the evergreen back drop. It took my breath away. Those were my colors and I claimed Autumn as my own. And, foolishly, I thought the sandhills of my youth had been drab and bereft of color.

Ten years in New Mexico helped me learn to appreciate the more subtle shades of Autumn. So much so, that the drive from Lincoln to Alliance the last week of September (2009) was every much as breathtaking as the day I first fell in love with Autumn. Scattered on the buff backdrop of lush dried grass were clumps of bright orange. A slightly less bright orange grass sported silvery plumes of seed heads waving high above the grass itself. A low growing grass with pink seed heads gave the appearance of fuzzy pillows scattered on the ground. Brown stems and seed heads of sunflowers dotted the landscape. The still bright green of the valleys added contrast and beauty. On the eastern end there had been red banks of wood vine and the deep burgundy leaves and dark brown seed pods of a small bush growing on the ditch banks. The hills were dotted with the stiff green spikes of yucca and some still had their cream colored pods. Regenerated sandhills lakes reflected the bright blue sky. Blackbirds were gathering and put a song in the air.

A beautiful Autumn tapestry rekindling my love affair with Autumn.