Saturday, March 30, 2013

Grey path to nowhere

Landscape of little color
Komoka, ON
November 2012
Click here to share your own Thematic grey contribution
A funny thing happens in autumn, just after all the leaves have fallen and just before the snow covers it all up. The landscape seems to become almost monochrome.

Sure, if you look closely you'll see flashes of color buried deep in the margins - like a stray leaf or two in the middle of a pile of muted browns. But overall, it still seems like Mother Nature sucked the life out of what was, just a few days before, a riotous explosion of a rainbow.

Of course we all know the color will return next year. First, the bright, hopeful greens of budding leaves and flowers, then the full spectrum of summer foliage. This sense of greyness descending on our world is only temporary. But for now, the leaching effect of late fall seems to give pause to the fact that we'll have to live without it all for a few months, and if we really want to experience it in the coming months, we'll have to close our eyes and imagine hard.

Perhaps absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder.

Your turn: Seasons changing. Good, bad or indifferent?

4 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Good!

Although it's always nice to visit someplace tropical in the winter.
~

21 Wits said...

Gee do I know that, it seems grey paths are leading everywhere here too! YiKeS! Somebody please get out the paint, I need some color here!

Catherine said...

Around here, it is oftem greener in winter than summer, given that dry summers can turn grass to a shade of pale straw. And many of our native trees are evergreen - not just confers, but broadleaf varieties, too. We have the occasional snowfall, but it's a rarity if it lays on the ground more than a day or so.
I think seasonal changes are rather nice - it would be boring if every season was the same.

Kelsea said...

I agree with Karen, I'm ready for Spring and some color! Sadly, it's mostly been snowing here and when it's not snowing, it's raining.

However, I've always loved picture like the one you posted of a road leading off into the unknown. It makes you wonder where the road is going and where it came from. It also reminds me of a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien, "The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone,and I must follow it, if I can."