Fall Color for Muse Day: November 1, 2010

I've been waiting to post my fall photos for the Fall Color Project at Dave's The Home Garden...and today seems the perfect day to do so--because it's also Garden Bloggers' Muse Day at Carolyn's Sweet Home and Garden Chicago. What a great opportunity to 'kill two leaves with one poem', so to speak;-) Not funny? Oh, come on!

The following quote by Elizabeth Lawrence touches on what I think is an often overlooked aspect of fall: just sitting still, and observing the beauty in nature. We are so busy running around, doing errands, cleaning up the garden, etc., that we sometimes forget to look at the colors changing right before our very eyes. Here she sums it up:

"Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn."

                    --Elizabeth Lawrence

On that note, I want to share with you an outing we took on a recent weekend. We took our boat out on the Potomac river, entering through a channel on the Occoquan. What lovely color there was that day! The reds, golds, and oranges seemed to literally glow with the addition of the beautiful sunshine and the bright blue sky. Here are some of the sights and critters we viewed along the way, as we sat in our boat and looked around:

A Heron along the river's edge:

Geese migrating north for the winter:

One of the passengers on our boat ride:

A farmhouse along the river helped to create a lovely fall picture:

Although the Virginia Creeper vine adds bright color in autumn, it can be quite invasive:

Two more passengers along for the ride:

Seagulls along the shallow water looked like a row of rocks:

...until they scattered!

Our trusty driver and another passenger:

Boats resting in their boatslips:

Geese on the river:

The mighty Potomac river is actually brown and muddy looking, but in the sunlight it mirrored the colorful blue of the sky:

More Virginia Creeper mingling with the trees:

More colorful tree scenes, as viewed from the boat:

A fisherman enjoying the beauty and solitude:

The highlight of our day on the river was seeing three bald eagles soaring above us as well as swooping down and flying level with the water. My photos aren't as clear as I would like them to be, but in person it was a gorgeous sight!

Thank you for stopping by, and please visit both Dave's and Carolyn's blogs (links are listed above) to view more fall color and muse-day verse.

Today I am so thankful for the reds, golds, oranges, purples and other heart-warming shades of the autumn leaves.


Words and photos ©Thanks For Today, by Jan Huston Doble