A shivering grey darkness forms earlier now
As the summer months have slipped away
Long gone the hot afternoons when we sat in the park
Spreading our picnic over the checked table-cloth
Long gone the radiant flowers and squealing children chasing ball
For now we enter the season the Americans name Fall
My favourite season by far
The greenness of the landscape now ripened to fullest gold
Leaves sprinkling down as tall trees cast their coats
The colours are a veritable feast
Not unlike an artists pallet
Where once stood nature's truest greens
Now softly exchange to deep burnt orange and all shades therein
Gentle yellows and tan cascade from high above
Forming the thickest blanket beneath our shoe
Some wider than the span of a hand float down
And lay upon each other on the cold grass
Making a crunching crackling sound as we tread
While ruby red berries festoon from on high
Draping above us like velvet curtains
Home to a lazy rest by the open fireside
Coal spitting tiny bullets of flame into the hearth
Which quickly die and then return to black
Snuggled under a cream woollen throw with cushions propping our back
We sit sipping mugs of hot chocolate
The heat from which rewards us with a healthy warm pink to our cheeks
Leather-bound books, with fragile crisp pages
Lay upon our knee as we read and absorb words of Shakespeare
Content and at peace
Happy with mother earth's bounteous gift
