Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Late Autumn - Songs in a Different Key

Leaves crunching underfoot or rattling like sabres in in the wind, ice crystals limning cedar fence rails along the ridge, blowsy plumes of frosted grasses along the perimeter of the edge of the western field, stands of frozen reeds along the pond—all are fine representations of the season, plangent leitmotifs in the windy musical work that is late autumn. At this time of the year, the Two Hundred Acre Wood is an Aeolian harp, a vast musical instrument that only the wind can play.

The season marches onward, settling slowly, and with deep sighs, into the subdued tints of early winter: soft bronzes, creams, beiges and silvery greys, small splashes here and there of winey red, burgundy, russet, a midnight blue almost iridescent in its sheen and intensity, but oh so fragile.

Frosts in the eastern Ontario highlands make themselves known as sugary drifts over old wood and on fallen leaves almost transparent in their lacy textures. An owl's artfully barred feather lies in thin sunlight under the fragrant cedars down by the spring and seems to be giving off a graceful pearly light of its own. The weedy residents of field and fen cavort in fringed and tasseled hats.

One needs another lens and tuning for winter, a different sort of vision, a song in a different key. The senses are performing a seasonal shift of their own, moving carefully into the consideration of things small, still and muted, but complete within themselves and perfect, even when they are cold and wet and tattered.

There is light in the world, even in these dark times, and she has to remember that. Her camera and lens never forget, and out in the woods, they drink in light like nectar. She is thankful that they do and that they remind her at every turning along on the trail—we are made of star stuff. We live in a sea of light.

5 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

Good morning...these were lovey words to drink with my coffee.

Tabor said...

Sighing here this morning. Such a lovely reprieve from my chores.

Mystic Meandering said...

"One needs another lens, a different sort of vision, and a song in a different key..." I find this applies to life in general too, as we learn to live in a season of conflict and chaos here in the US with the rhetoric of hatred and violence. And yet - as you say, everything is complete within themselves and perfect, even in the darkness. Your words are so apt for the season of the times... Thank you...

a gardener said...

Thank you for this post. The lyrics from Will Todd's beautiful choral piece, Among Angels, seem to fit with your writing today.

Part 1: Fear Not
Fear not you the dark.
We carry you on soft wide wings.

Part 2: Find only Joy
Find only joy in the golden heavens
and the shining earth.

Part 3: Seek out Light
Seek out light and bind it to your own light.
Fear not you the dark.
We carry you on soft wide wings

Blue Sky Dreaming said...

Thank you.."we live in a sea of light" I will hold to these words today...