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Monday, September 6, 2010

Prelude To Fall


We got a break from the heat this weekend! Blue skies prevailed. Clouds drifted by, light and feathery. It was the first time in a long while that people commented favorably on the weather.

I got the idea while sitting on the front steps with Grayson Saturday morning. I was just sitting there in blissful celebration of a cool morning. My son was between my knees exploring the brick steps with his tiny pink fingers. He discovered the stem of a dry leaf. He figured out how to lift and twirl it above his head. I found a similar one and, mimicking my son, ended with a gentle flourish that sent my leaf floating back to the ground. Well that did it. Grayson was hooked on the magic of leaves.

I decided we needed to retire to the front lawn to sit beneath the tuliptree from which those leaves had tumbled. It was there, for the next hour or so, that we laid in the shade on a cool cotton sheet littered with a local assortment of leaves,pine needles, and a twig or two. Grayson got his first hands-on experience with the prelude to fall. I got to recline and breath deeply as I spied the sky and tossed leaves up into the breeze. So here's a reminder for when the weather is just right: "Lie down and look up."