Blue Ridge Parkway

Several times each week, I drive on a 7 mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I love it! There is no better place to see the seasons change and unfold. Right now, we are enjoying the golden, russet, umber, sienna, and maroon colors of autumn, with the brilliant, blue sky. What colors do you see where you live?

Soon all this glamour will fade to gray, brown, taupe, with white sky and flat light. Bonuses in the winter are the beautiful snow days. And the colors reflecting from the two and three feet long icicles clinging to rock faces. I enjoy seeing the nude limbs, branches, and twigs of the stately, yet now vulnerable seeming trees, stretching outward and upward, especially in an eerie, early morning fog. I might see a deer or a turkey or a fox.

Once again, spring awakening will come. The pastel pinks, yellows, blues, and greens will return. The hundreds of dogwood trees in the woods along the Parkway are subtle and exquisite, and will once again look like snow.

And finally, my beloved summer will arrive again. Summer, with its deep, green, full, and lush foliage, and bright, garish flowers. Ah-h-h, and the heat and humidity. . .

I said farewell to summer, a few weeks ago, and I am embracing fall now. We had our first frost yesterday. I'm digging out all my favorite sweaters and I made the bed with flannel sheets. Time for all those soups and stews I love making. And snuggling under a nice warm blanket, with my sweetheart.

This is the day I have been given and I am grateful.