Remnants

It's that in-between time.

My calendar spells out D-E-C-E-M-B-E-R across the top...

...but it's still officially fall—that is until the twenty-first day arrives.

~

Somedays it feels like winter, other days like spring.

If you look through the woods, mostly brown now,

you can still see a green vine here and there...

...refusing to give up the ghost.

~

Yes, it's that in-between time of the year.

The glorious colors of autumn are all but gone...

...yet a few brittle leaves of brown and gold still hang on for dear life...

...dancing around on their skinny branches as the winds of late fall blow.

THE LAST LEAF
~ by Henry Behn

A few leaves stay for a while on the trees
After their color begins to turn,
And no other leaves seem as gold as these
Not even the ones our bonfires burn

With golden flames in piles on the ground.
A few leaves stay so long that I found
The one last leaf on a tree in the snow,
And when a galloping wind came round

The edge of our house and started to blow
Snow dust to sparkles floating free.
When the wind ran away, almost with me,

And sunshine settled quiet and cold.
There, like a bird, still on the tree
Was that lonesome leaf, no longer gold
But curly and brown and dry and old. 

So, coming back into the house after my little trek into the woods,

I couldn't help but notice how many of the gazillions of fallen leaves had blown up onto the deck. 

My poor little ol' broom has surely been getting a workout. 

~

Once a deep red and brilliant orange, these oak leaves have become a part of the remnant...

...no longer the beauties that they once were, but beautiful still, on a whole other level.

It won't be long now...but then again, this is North Carolina, after all.

It is sixty-five degrees today and tomorrow's high is going to be forty-two.

And so it goes....

~

And speaking of remnants...

...are you enjoying your Thanksgiving leftovers as much as I am??