Sunday, November 19, 2006

autumn thoughts

The year is coming to an end. The leaves are already copper colour and the winds are becoming chilly. It's strange what a difference a few degrees make. The sun is distancing, in an imense figure-8, and leaving this land of sun-rises.

Autumn always has this nostalgic feelng, as if it's the true end of the year and winter is just a hibernation period before the next year begins. So this post is dedicated to a walk I took through Kenroku'en on such a fall day.


I wanted to walk through leaves, like ankle-deep, but there were these old ladies in traditional, circular hats who kept raking up all the fallen colours. So I eventually found a spot that they couldn't get to. Hidden in this little stream.
Somewhere in the hills of Kenroku'en, I found some peace. The sunlight hit the mountains beyond and painted them bright metalic tones, and through the leaves, I could see this lantern, twice my height.

3 comments:

sQ*eeky said...

thanks Julie.

I miss you and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone next month. Time flies over here!
I can't believe I've already been here almost a year.

Anonymous said...

Fig. 12 (photo unavailable):

"The octogenarians whispered in hushed tones—the winds carried their secrets off as gently as they would support a bird’s wings. Little did the gaijin know, the women were discussing his fortune which they had just read in the newly fallen leaves. The old legend says that stars fall to the earth during the Leonids showers and cannot be distinguished from leaves. The women quickly raked the fortunes together in piles, careful to protect them, for to unveil the blessings before their time was bad luck. The women watched the young man take a picture of the little stream and they smiled at one another and nodded, delighted as they witnessed Happiness in the form of a shadow tickling his heels and peaking over his shoulder with amusement."

It looks like a beautiful walk, Graeme! I really like the description of light "painting" the mountains metallic colours. Lovely!

Anonymous said...

That looks super cool. I think you relly captured the essence of the Japanese landscape with those photos. The tree in the first one looks like a bonsai and that pile of leaves in the pool is charged with metaphor.

Looking forward to Christmas!