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Favorite Season Entry

Wintery Friends

Gentle white like an angels wings,
Floating down to the earth in crystal stars.
When the snow falls,
Peace ensues,
And all is quiet throughout the neighborhood.

Icy and frigid, ice covers the trees,
A fireplace warms the hearth and the house it inhabits.
Ice so heavy that trees are falling,
Yet the snow keeps floating down to earth.
Your breath fogs up the glass windows,
Eyes starring in an innocent wonder at the fluffy winter wonderland spread out before you.

Putting on your heaviest jacket, donning your warmest pair of gloves,
Pushing your feet into the thickest of boots,
You get ready for your freezing adventure.
Opening the door, each breath looks like a puff of smoke,
And excitement quickens your breathing.

The snow keeps falling from the grey clouds above,
As you begin your task of making the first snowman on the street.
It will be small, since you have no help, but it will be adorable all the same.

As the day fades into night,
Its gets colder and colder,
But hour later, you stare proudly at your snow friend.
It gives you a snow filled smile, and you can’t help but smile back.

The snow still keeps up its graceful fall
As you walk up the steps to your home,
Shake your boots to get clinging ice off,
Then walk inside where you know a nice cup of hot cocoa calls your name.

This is what the winter season says to me.
It’s cold, and grey, but filled with joy.
When the first snow falls from the cloud covered sky,
This is what I often do.
When the season finally comes around,
Happiness fills me,
As I think of the snow friend I will soon be making.

heart

Autumn in California is subtle, at best, and wet and gloomy at its absolute worst. Having grown up in California, I learned early how to tell how the autumn weather would effect the following seasons: if it was cold, but not wet, it meant the real heat of summer would take longer in coming while spring made up for autumn's absence of rain; if it was cold and wet, it meant the coming winter would be nasty and brutal, but short.

The city I grew up in was always busy--too busy to notice the leaves quietly changing and dying and drifting from their branches until they littered the streets and crunched noisily underfoot. Leaves were healthy and green one day and dried brown the other, and no one bothered to look up to see the slow transition. I was one of those people. I never really noticed. The leaves turning colors was no spectacular thing, because every oak tree stood next to a pine or a palm, and all of the colors just blended together. I had always heard of "the turning of the leaves" like it was some big thing, but I never really got it.

Last year, I went to New York for Thanksgiving. I had never been there before. I stayed with my cousin, who lives across the street from Central Park. He took me through it one day, idly noting the unusually mild Autumn weather. It was late enough in the year that most of the trees had already turned brown for the year, but he pointed one in particular out to me.

The leaves looked like someone had set them aflame, then frozen the moment in time to allow the rich reds, oranges, and yellows to settle. It stood like a beacon in the middle of the park amongst trees that had already succumbed to nature, weather, and time--they had gone out with a whimper, but this single tree seemed determined to go out with a bang. It declared proudly with every burning leaf that blew in the wind that it would submit on its own terms, maybe, if it felt like it. I had never seen a tree look like that, even in pictures, and I told my cousin so.

"It knew you were coming," he joked. "It was waiting just for you."

I felt like I had just gotten a glimpse of what I had missed out on all those prior autumns that never really mattered anyway, because none of them had ever produced something like this. I stood there for awhile watching the light play over the leaves, almost waiting for the other trees to catch whatever natural fire that had colored this one so brilliantly. "Look at me," it seemed to whisper with every quiet sussuration of its branches and leaves, "this, this is what you've been missing out on."

I stayed there watching other people, tourists and jaded natives alike, marvel at the colors that nature had blessed that tree with until the cold drove me indoors. I went back the next day, armed with a camera so I could provide the image as more than just a mental snapshot when I went home to Florida--which experiences autumn even less than California does--only to find that the colors, though still present, had dulled as they should have weeks ago to mere embers from a raging blaze.

It was as if the tree really had been waiting just for me and, having sparked my interest in this new and exciting thing, decided it had done its good deed for the year and deserved a nice, long rest.

My Entry for Autumn

Photo: My daughter, Dani

I love Autumn because that's the season in which my daughter entered this world. Though it's always been my favorite season, I couldn't have pictured a better way of embracing it than by celebrating her life at the start of it. She enjoys it as much as I do. heart

wonderful entries guys <3 this is going to be really tough to judge <3 heart Keep it up! <3

I am here because of Inuki_Star...

Here is my submission for the Autumn season! 3nodding xd

Autum!!

*rolls in* :B Oohr. I was referred here by Melodymh4. <3