A Yellow Leaf in August

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

As you know, Dixie and I have been a bit preoccupied with the changing of the season of late. I spotted this yellow leaf, one of many, and found it strangely beautiful, especially against the green shrubbery stubbornly holding on. There will be many more, I am sure...

It no longer feels like summer at all. If I close my eyes, I can smell the new leather smell of shoes recently purchased for the start of school. I can feel the blisters on my ankles as I wait for them to become 'broken in'. I can remember how quickly they become 'no longer new' by kicking great piles of wet leaves that have drifted down to the sidewalks on my way home from school.

I want to buy fresh notebooks, rulers and pencils even though I don't use those things any more.

I want to start a new project that will probably never be quite finished.

I want to sit next to a fire and wear big bulky sweaters.

I want to eat fruit cobbler still warm from the oven and big mugs of steaming hot chocolate.

Alas, it is not quite that time yet. It is merely the twilight of summer. I am still waiting for autumn to come rising over the horizon.

I am watching and waiting...

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Bertrand Russell