Look out most windows, fall is all around. Yellow, red and brown surround, and the sun shines against an azure sky. Point and shoot cameras were made for fall.
Walk outside the door and feel warm sun or gentle rain. Even the air seems fresher and cleaner. Vague anticipation abducts the thoughts towards what is coming (holidays?) than to what is leaving, summer greens.
Fall does have good taste. The cornucopia of hot chilli, crisp apples, buttery popcorn, toasted nuts, and warm pumpkin bread accent inside what we see outside.
It is possible to experience fall in the city, but it is in the quiet of hills and valleys of the backroads that fall sounds are heard against the backdrop of what isn’t there, our daily lives. Hiking in the woods, especially uphill and down, begs the occasional respite, to listen to nothing. Nothing but woodpeckers drumming, seeping water dripping, little animals rustling the leaves to gather food, and the creek flowing over rocks. In the early afternoon, most of the birds have silenced for a spell and the wind might be still. Then there is the most colorful, comfortable, delicious experience of all in the fall— listening to sounds not made by us.
©Rita Venable 2011