Fall Fancies - The Cruelest Month

Fall color has reached its peak here in upstate NY.  In areas, the trees are bare.  Almost all trees that still have leaves are showing some degree of color. 

October can be the cruelest month.  Don't be fooled by those bright yellow or red leaves lighting up the hills.  Don't be surprised when they fall from the trees in showers of debris needing to be raked up.  Don't be misled by fall flowers.  These are the colors of impending death.  You can feel the chill in the air. You can see the weakening daylight.  You can be chilled to the bone.  You know you are seeing the death of summer.

Soon, we will be slipping on ice.  Soon, we will be shoveling snow.  But until then, let us hold onto these last memories of the growing season.

A tree in Endicott, NY near the George F. Johnson Library.

A wildflower clings to life in Yonkers, NY, just north of New York City.

A mystery flower (anyone know what this is?) sends up its final blooms in the Cross County shopping center in Yonkers.

And, in a bed in the Cross County center, flowering cabbages rule along with sedum.

So many people I know love the four seasons.  And indeed, I drink the cider of fall.  I eat the apples.  I drink the first soups of the cold weather season.  But I still think that fall is the cruelest month, because I know what comes next.

The Great Sleep.  Winter.