Fall is Just Around the Bend

Daybreak at our house. I think that fall skies are the most dramatic and beautiful. Up early to water the new grass. I thought.. before it gets hot out. Then I remembered the weather report...coolness is here. I had to wear my very old long sleeved denim shirt. It felt good to wear something soft and worn on this chilly morning.

 

I noticed that the leaves are starting to change on Marrill Road, just a short block away. I've photographed this colorful road since the first fall in this house. There is another road that is especially pretty any time of the year. Kennedy Hill Road. How I love going down this road in any season, but during the fall it is gorgeous. I call it the gateway to Byron. We live just across the river from it. I can see the top of this road from our house during the winter.I'll soon be there taking pictures.. yet again.Why do we take pictures of the same spot each fall? . I think that we are just overwhelmed with God's goodness in giving us a beautiful present to lift our spirits This beauty is just a glimpse of Heaven on earth. He gives us the beauty and the eyes to enjoy it.. How lucky are we? 

 Along the road is a place that I watch each year. It changes from yellow ochre to pinkish to brown in a matter of weeks. There are many purple wildflowers mixed in. The grasses sway in the breeze and when I step out of my car...I can hear them rustle. Thank God for ears to hear nature's sounds. The rustling of grasses and especially bird song.

 It's getting to be the time of year to start that fall cleanup. Those pruners mysteriously disappeared last fall. I looked and looked for them. Finally I bought a new pair. Now, I have learned that Joe had them all the while. Naughty! Thank God for marriage. We might have a spat now and then, but most times we get along fine. Nice to have company in our lives, as we grow old. 

 The river has returned to it's banks and now receding a bit, because of no rain. That is the bridge that I so often write about. We live on the right end of the bridge and it goes across the river into our little town. It is often taken for granted... by me.....until I stop and really look at it. What a beautiful river it is. The road along it is called the "Gateway to The Rock River Valley" This is a scenic river with twists and turns and beauty everywhere...a road that many flock to in the fall for their "fall drive". 

I lost my son this summer and at that time I thought that life was so cruel. I sort of stopped seeing the world before me.Now, I realise that life does go on and I'm getting better and accepting this terrible loss. Tim was such a nature lover and would just hate his Mom not appreciating life and missing out on the beauty of nature......so saying that I can say, after experiencing the out doors this morning, I think to myself, "You're a lucky woman, Balisha." You are able to get up each morning and take in a fresh breath of air, go outside and work till you are tired, come inside a nice house and eat what ever you want to eat and have the company of Joe.... doing one of our favorite things ...taking  a drive and seeing  it all again.

Balisha