“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all”
Forget the Gregorian calendar. For as long as I can remember it’s the first of September that heralds the new year on my calendar. The fall harvest ripening into hearty soups and long-simmering stews, festivals for writing and films with premiers of new novels and movies, dahlias in russet and gold, magazines thick with fashions for the fall season, the ideal time to travel to so many places, sweaters…
Septemberāthe exhilaration of the new school year, as a kid and when I was teaching.
Remember the Bliss Carmen poem we memorized in school?
There is something in the Autumn that is native to my blood
Touch of manner, hint of mood
And my heart is like a rhyme
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.
…hours given over to basking in the glow of an imagined Future

Summer
Sighs into fall: ā¦
The light can breathe with
Pleasureā¦
No Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face
Autumn harvest dressed in crimson

Plumping the cob, kernels of sweetness

Autumn quietly deepensāa bridge to mellow thoughts
To soak in the noon sun, and fly
Carefree
Let the eye enlarge
with all it beholds
September, the new year of travel in our golden jubilado years while ābacking into a sunsetā
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower
Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall
Happy New Year!
Navigation
Update: Langer, Emily. “Linda Pastan, poet of concentrated beauty, dies at 90.” Washington Post, February 1, 2023.
Bloch, Chana: āhours given over to basking in the glow of an imagined Futureā
Camus, Albert. “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower”
Donne, John. “No Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such grace/As I have seen in one Autumnal face”
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. āLife starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fallā
Horowitz, Stanley. “Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all”
Orr, David.āSummer/Sighs into fall: ā¦/The light can breathe with/Pleasureā¦ā and āTo soak in the noon sun, and fly/Carefreeā
Pastan, Linda. āLet the eye enlarge/with all it beholdsā
Rice, Bruce.ā…backing into a sunsetā
16 Responses
There is a Gaelic blessing / good will wish that comes to mind with woodsmoke drifting through the spruce trees in āLakelandā Saskatchewan, where we are this fall weekend ..It is āLang may your lum reekā . it translates roughly āmay you hearth reek of wood and coal smoke and ashes for a long long time (implying that you should live to a ripe old age).. A warming sentiment on a crisp fall day..
Cead Mike Failte to you.
Gloria , what a beautiful post , beautiful pictures and fantastic selection of quotes .Thank you so much
Hereās another quote I love from Tim Kreider in The New York Times in August 29, 2015: āI suspect that the way I feel now, at summerās end, is about how Iāll feel at the end of my life, assuming I have time and mind enough to reflect: bewildered by how unexpectedly everything turned out, regretful about all the things I didnāt get around to, clutching the handful of friends and funny stories Iāve amassed, and wondering where it all went.ā
Autumn always a blast of new energy and packing away the white linen.
A cool blast!
Loved the photos.Hope all is well for your Mom.
On photos: Remember Perspectivesāopening partyāyou were so young!
You have changed my feelings toward autumn as I am always sad when summer ends. But loved this quote “Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them allā.
Thanks for the uplift!
Blog therapy, for free.
absolutely lovely! XO
For a proper toast to the New Year, head to The Diamond on Powell Street for a Smoke ān Mirrors cocktail as we did last week for Magellanās birthday.
Awesome pictures and many a memory from the āWay back Machineā
Fall is indeed upon us, Mother Natureās palette is exploding into visions only she can provide, a Harvest for the eyes, so to speak.
āHappy Trails to allā
The Bard of Torch River you are Barry, love your poetic response. TY.
How beautiful. Autumn has always been my favourite time of the year.
Thank you Spice.
Mine too, obviously. And we get to see the prairies in autumn this year.