Ahhhtumn

Today took my breath away. I bring my camera just about everywhere I go, and often take shots right out of the car window...my husband was driving and the beauty that surrounded us was impossible to ignore. I rolled down the window and aimed my camera out, clicking everything. I'm not looking at anything when I'm shooting these pictures, I just click until I get home...300 Photos later!
This one was one of my favorites, we live north of Minneapolis, and the colors of the seasons have hit us this year with an amazing display, and I can hardly stop talking about it.

By clicking the picture, you'll be taken to my Flickr Site, where there are A lot posted in one of the Collections, called Autumn. It is by far the most amazing Fall I've ever seen. Today was about 70 degrees outside, and everything had the most wonderful smells, the wind was warm off the lakefront as we drove and the smell was that of heat and indian summer, decaying earth. Really gets me thinking, how Beautiful the death of our summer is...it leaves with an incredible beauty, something we only see for a couple weeks a year, and then it's gone, then the trees go bare, and the grass goes dry and brown.
Today was overcast, my favorite kind of day to take photos, there is a certain ... almost eerie quality to the landscape, but something so amazing and beautiful. How that life leaves us, as if screaming in those radiant reds and golds, the kind of Autumn yellows that make it appear as if the sun is shining, when it's not.
When I was young I used to say how I wish I could have one of those Brilliant yellow Trees in my yard, all year around, so when the sun wasn't out, it would give me the illusion that it was. There is No time of year that is as powerful to me, as Autumn...
Spring is amazing with the new fuzzy life it bursts up from the earth...and summer is water, swimming and thunderstorms....Winter is so bare and cold it makes me want to hibernate into a sunny haven somewhere and never set my eyes on the bareness it offers. The beauty of bare trees, black against white snow will always stir up handfuls of emotions...but the Brilliant reds of autumn, the way the sun seems to almost burn the color right into the leaves, leaves me speechless...my camera doesn't do it one bit of justice.
All I have is a 3.2 Megapixel Camera, and it appears to be my biggest Challenge to take a good photo with this camera. (if anyone has a great camera they don't use....I'll be more than happy to take it off your hands!!!)
It saddens me to think.....any morning now, there will be a hard frost on the ground...we've come close, and my Basil has died, but my Oregano has done absolutely fantastic! Our garden in the back yard, looks haunted and aged, the corn stalks all yellowed and dry, tomatoes covering the ground, the cucumber patch is all yellow and wilted, and one big orange pumpkin still sits in the sun, absorbing these last days of the warm weather.
Feel free to go to the Flickr Page and check out some of the other photos...there are several collections, including art, live music, and photos of the most amazing time of the year to me.
So for us here in the midwest, our winter approaches, and in Australia, spring is coming...and that blows my mind, how things come and go, at different times for different parts of the world.
Feel free to share any photos you may have, of your part of the world...what's going on in your back yard?
Thanks for reading :)
-Suzen JueL

3 Pennies

You're every emotion, of a jigsaw dream
6 wheels in motion, your engines all scream.

You're pieces of leather, and hands full of lace
you're words of a wish, like wind in my face.

You sit in my room, and walk to the moon
can't cry to your mother, she left you too soon.

Beat On My Drum. Pound On My Brain.
I'll give you Thunder, if you bring me some Rain.

I cannot stand, anymore of your pain
Give me 3 wishes, I'll whisper your name.
9.25.1995

This was a song, many years ago...perhaps one day I'll revive it again, give it some life, a voice.
At the time I wrote this song, I was living in Minneapolis, in a lil apartment. One of my closest friends (at that moment in time) was a disturbed man by the name of Chris. I say "Disturbed" Because of the Chemical Imbalance that Bipolar brings to those of us who have such a gift. With Chris, he was like a feather in the wind, wherever it blew..mud, rain, sun...he went. By my Side and far away, one day there was forgiveness, the next there was distance and hostility. This was Before I understood all the beauty of bipolar and the Chaos as well...looking back, he was like a jigsaw puzzle, I just couldn't understand the moods, even though I lived them myself...it was unfamiliar to me. As the song states...I can not stand any more of your pain...give me 3 wishes, I'll whisper your name...
I believe we have the power to 'exclude' those things in our lives, which we have no more use for. They come....they go, we learn.
Whispering your name as a wish, is a beautiful release...and goodbye.