I stayed home sick today. I've got a nasty cold, and this morning it sat on me and choked me until I couldn't breathe. I've tried to work from home and take drugs (which I HATE doing) and stay vertical, but it's a losing battle.
After reading my work e-mail (thanks zod, no fires), I opened the shades above my computer at home. It's definitely fall in Seattle. The colors aren't here yet - they never really are, they get washed away too quickly when the rains come, which is sad - but the grey coolness is everywhere.
I'm looking at the browning leaves of the lilac tree, the pale yellow of the neighbor's house with it's even brown roof shingles, the architecture of the cypress, the horizontal levels of grey from the clouds zooming overhead, the sumac leaves starting to turn bright yellow. Fall came too quickly this time. The sky shouldn't look like gunmetal until the trees along 23rd Avenue are scarlet.
I wish I could have taken a good picture of what I see. I used to love fall ... brilliant and cool and crisp and still lively ... but it's so quick here that I'm afraid of missing it, missing any transition from hot and sunny and overgrown to wet and bare and dark. I miss the reds and golds and bronzes against the slightly whitish blue sky with only the high, faint jet trails crossing it.
I'd love to have one more day in an earth-colored plaid wool coat, walking in the forest preserve with my Mom and Dad and brothers, kicking up dry leaves and then heading to the apple orchard in Lake Zurich. I'm a big softie, I know. Fall always makes me want to be a kid again.
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13 comments:
Wow. What a marvelously poetic post! No need for the photo. I can see it all.
And congratulations by the way, on your marriage or whatever title you choose to give it. Language belongs to all of us after all, not to any government.
The colors are coming to an end here but still pretty awesome. I love fall also but I don't like the season after it!
Chicken soup! Well it never really works for me but when I have a cold I don't feel like eating anything else. Hope you feel better soon Matt.
Steven.
Here's to feeling better soon, Matt.
Take care!
Feel better Matt. I don't take cold meds any more (mostly antihistamines - a horrible class of drugs). Symptoms can be more intense, but colds last half as long. Lots of citrus seems to help the cleansing along.
Your moody riff on a stillborn autumn, full of saffron and slate and remembering, was oddly comforting. How did you do that?
I suspect that you also miss Brown County.
Here in western NY, fall is a time when the leaves turn brown and fall, but the grass turns green again after suffering through the summer heat. A very interesting dynamic I've never experienced anywhere else.
There's no doubt that colors in fall do things to our head and hearts that nothing else can do. We had a hail storm that wrecked the trees nicely the other day. I think you sawthe pics on my post of our fall colors....they're still up if you want to see them again! Happy Fall!
I ALMOST needed a jacket Monday morning... I love this time of year.
Such a pretty post. Fall is the most sentimental of the seasons, I think. I hope you feel better soon - seems like everyone is battling something. May yours be won shortly.
Still plenty of colors to come in Chicago...hint, hint.....
Great post, Matt! This wouldn't happen to be Bell's Apple Orchard in Lake Zurich you're referring to? Been there many times as a youth. I hope your cold disappears quickly!
What a wonderful post,
having grown up in Seattle I totally know what you mean by the seasons, I live in Palm Springs now and we have HOT and COLD no in between
Hope you get better soon, the cold bug will be hitting here as well
Sorry to hear about your cold. I hope by now you are feeling better.
I remember the apple orchard in Lake Zurich and, like you, fall always makes me want to be a kid playing in the leaves!
I'm only just now getting caught up on my blog reading..hope you are feeling better by now. I hate being sick.
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