Apples and leaves

Autumn's beauty always takes me surprise. I dread the loss of summer so keenly that my misery seems settled for the long haul of cold, till next June at least. Then, one crisp afternoon the air is smelling of burning wood, the outrageous golds and reds of trees are illuminated by the cloudless sky and I feel the tingling of a kind of enlightened joy; like in the outward thrust of summer something was missing, that now is returning - a welcome home-coming of the soul.