This Fall Foliage and Living in the Moment

Black chokecherry, aronia

Last fall I missed all the colorful foliage.  I lay in a bed at my brother's, just wishing for time to pass and for myself to be healed.  I slept as much as I possibly could.  Time crept along.  The seasons and the seconds seemed to be moving at their own pace.  More than ever before I was aware of how futile our attempts to control its passage really are.

Pagoda dogwood, alternifolia and the Big Daddy hosta with the still green lancifolia hosta

I was living much too much "in the moment".  There was pain, There was boredom.  There was also a sense of futility.

'Quickfire' hydrangea

I missed these beautiful images of my shrubs and trees changing and divesting themselves of the green of summer.

Sugar maple from my dad's selection, home farm swamp

Until this year, I believed I might have planted a maple with less-than-beautiful foliage smack-dab in the middle of my yard.  I haven't been quite so wrong before...

View of my yard from the alley way, looking like a colorful woods

'Golden Spirit' smokebush

My 'Golden Spirit' smokebush seems to have an inner glow.  The growth habit of my particular specimen is a bit strange and will need some serious thought late winter, but it survived The Brutal Winter of 2013 and seems to glow from within as its leaves take on this burnished look.

Looking from my backyard side gate to street-side; nice neighbors and a good view!

I am fortunate to live in such a cute corner of central WI, and as "gentrified" as it gets in these parts (a minimum of cars up on blocks, and unkempt yards and such).

Yellow leaves of  Annabelle hydrangea

Colorful foliage on a deciduous azalea Northern Lights series

Looking NE and past the 'Red Jade' weeping crabapple

My village has its own assortment of sugar maples, Norway maples, and oaks, and just enough white pine to provide a nice green contrast.  The village itself is a nice fall drive and one I missed so much last fall when I found living in the moment was too much to bear.  This year, finding that sweet spot of living in the moment is almost as difficult.

But, do try...

Borrowed view