Thursday, October 11, 2007

Autumn Fires


In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer'
Fires in the fall!

Robert Louis Stevenson, (from A Child's Garden of Verses)
Illustration by Alice and Martin Provensen

Now, they make raking and burning autumn leaves look like a lot of fun, don't they?

1 comment:

Tina Dawn said...

We haven't been burning any leaves yet, but we have had several woodstove fires over the past few weeks, and the light scent of the smoke in the air is just delightful. That, combined with the "just-rained" smell, reminds me of when we used to go camping with our family over on the California and Oregon coasts. I just love taking a cup of coffee in the early a.m. and strolling out into the yard to watch the sun come up. I think the sun comes up later this time of year just to accomodate this type of lovely morning respite.