Autumn Pictures and Poetry

Gardeners must make the most of autumn - it can be one of the shortest, smallest garden joys in their year. And all good autumn things must come to an end...

Quickly - leaves of the richest claret can be down and dead, dry brown, almost overnight. One day the flowering cherries will show off their fruit salad colours to the sky, and the next day there's a dull, crackling carpet underfoot.

Quickly - remember to take lots of photographs, before a big wind whooshes past the dogwoods and all the blood-red leaves drop. Quickly - remember to notice autumn's colours. Enjoy the subtle golden birch tree at the back of the shrubbery, and the day-glo orange Cotinus, the egg-yolk yellow Wisteria, the ridiculously lipstick-red Maple...

Autumn Poem

Autumn has pulled the plug on leaves
And down they fall,
Which I suppose is why
The Americans call it FALL
And of course when they fall they wander -
They rustle -
In summer apples and pears
Drop - 'thump' - much more final
And they don't blow away.

Alas, good autumn things must come to an end, but good poetry is allowed to ramble on. Enjoy this autumn poem, written by a good friend and man of (not a few) words, Frank Allan.