On Autumn

Ho! for the leaves that eddy down,

Crumpled yellow and withered brown...

Starting aloft to windy ways,

Telling the coming of bonfire days.

                                 From the poem "Bonfire Days" by Iowa writer Grace Strickler Dawson

These have truly been "bonfire days" of late.  In talking to a neighbor last night while retrieving my daughter from playing at said-neighbor's house..."It feels more like November than early October!"  Brrr.  It's good to look at the forecast, however, and see 70 degrees in our not too distant future.  What a relief.  I do remain melancholy, though, to see so many trees becoming bare and naked - lonely without their friendly leaves waving hello to me.