Fall Interlude

Took the girls on our usual long weekend walk through my favourite park in my neighbourhood. How tidy some wild natural gardens can be:)

I hear music. No, I mean, I hear it a lot. In my head. Life is very rhythmical, cadenced, circular. In the early fall, I hear the quiet tuning of instruments by an orchestra. The colours are shy this year. They are biding on their own time.

Some of the trees I have watched and admired over the years, usually spectacular by now, are sulking, because they experienced neighbours cut down for no reason or purpose. At least, that's my anthropomorphic take on it;)

The new tones in the wind begin in the fall, the rattle of the different types of leaves, the clapping of poplars, the hissing of cedars, the chuckling of maples... It's a fleeting, beautifully musical time of year. The muted colours are offset by the sharp crimson tones of my favourite trees & shrubs, not yet willing to reach for their highest notes of colour.


All animals are sensitive to changes at this time of year. Ferocious barbed pollen grains, some microscopic, tickle their skin, their delicate nostrils. Burdocks tangle dog and horse hair into disconcerting shapes. Chilly winds surprise summer warmed haunches. Horses whistle and blow in their paddocks, chasing and then following the fickle winds. It's the best time of year for riding. Flies are sleepy, the ground is drier, but still softened enough to be forgiving.

I remember, with an aching clarity, the hacks with GoLightly on our "Suicide" trails. The scenery of Oakville through Sixteen-Mile Creek's parks and trails was unfailingly spectacular. The red clay would soak up his strides, soundlessly, as we'd listen to the cacophony of sounds around us. Only the comforting metronomic sounds of leather chaps on leather saddle. Riding to the rhythms of the natural world. The horse always moves to music. We just have to listen closely.


The Girls, speed-serious-racing towards me, part of their dancing together. I try taking pictures with them, but it's like trying to capture a bird. They flit and fly and frolic. I laugh, and just keep snapping, hoping I can catch an instant of their hilarity.



I won, NO, I won!


Okay, let's race aGain!


Sorry for the picture blitz, precious readers.
My eyes and ears (and nose) are full, of Fall.