Tag Archives: autumn

The End Of September

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And thus ends September,
And Summer’s last ember
Still flickers and glows,
The colour of an autumn leaf,
As the river of Seasons flows
Into the Firth of Time,
With all our hopes and grief.

I have no idea where that came from, my head is often full of words, and sometimes those words come together. The first line just popped up in my head this afternoon, and the moment I wrote it down, the second line came straight to me. I wrote the rest in a few minutes, so it is a bit rough, but considering it was written in about ten minutes, I’m fairly pleased with it…

Autumn calls

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Autumn is not quite here fully yet, the trees are still mostly leafed in greenery, but more and more gold and brown leaves are showing, the pavements have more fallen leaves creating a crunching carpet underfoot. It may not be quite here yet, but autumn is knocking on summer’s door. I don’t mind – autumn in our northern kingdom, on a nice day, creates the most glorious colours, illuminated by a sunlight that is stretched out now to a soft, golden copper. Gorgeous.

Autumn Is Knocking On The Door 02

Autumn Is Knocking On The Door 01

Autumn arrives

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After a day of mixed weather, going from sunlight to showers and back, it was quite nice on the walk home from work, so I detoured through the old boneyard near my flat, to take some pics of the chestnut tree.

Autumn Arrives 01

Autumn Arrives 02

The sun was declining, the lower parts of the tree were in evening shadow already, but the upper branches and leaves and chestnuts were catching that copper-coloured, last hour of sunlight, so I zoomed in to catch a few close-ups.

Autumn Arrives 03

I got quite lucky with some close focus shots – bokeh, as it is often called, where the object in the foreground is sharp and the background a soft blur.

Autumn Arrives 05

Autumn Arrives 07

And what is autumn without more chestnuts?

Autumn Arrives 06

Autumn arrives

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Autumn has been creeping in the last couple of weeks – truth be told, it wasn’t much of a summer here, even by Scottish standards! And we’re still getting more rainy days than nice, just as with the washed-out summer, but when that golden, autumn light does come out, the colours are rather lovely.

Autumn Approaches 03

Autumn Approaches 02

Autumn sunlight backlighting leaves still turning from green to brown and gold.

Autumn Approaches 04

Fallen autumn leaf, stuck to a wet car window; always keep an eye open, you never know when an interesting photographic subject will offer itself up, if you notice it!

Of course, it isn’t just the trees and leaves, the autumn sun is so much lower in the sky that it now casts as much in the way of shadows as it does light, which creates scope for some interesting takes on an otherwise mundane subject, such as a chap sitting on a bench by the canal:

Sitting In Evening Sun And Shadow

Autumn arrives

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Autumn is really making itself felt as we move into late September; chillier in mornings and evenings now, although still quite pleasant temperatures in the main part of the day. Glorious, golden autumn sunlight quite often, and on those days it brings out the colours as the trees begin to turn, and it’s just utterly beautiful.

The Red And The Blue

Autumn Arrives At Holy Corner

With such lovely autumn sunshine, people were making the most of it, enjoying pavement cafe culture in Bruntsfield, before the weather and temperatures slide further and it becomes too uncomfortable to sit outside the cafes and bars (at least not without a coat on!).

Bruntsfield On An Autumn Afternoon 03

Bruntsfield On An Autumn Afternoon 04

Bruntsfield On An Autumn Afternoon 02

As always, you can click on the pics to see the far larger version on the Woolamaloo Flickr stream – now well north of 24, 000 photos!

Autumn reflections

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In a quiet loop of the River Forth just outside Stirling, dad and I found late afternoon – just an hour or so of daylight left on the short, winter’s day now – on a bright day was perfect, casting golden light, with the still water creating some wonderful reflections of old, rotting boat hulks on the muddy banks, some nearby industrial buildings and the Ochil Hills.

Autumnal Reflections On The Forth 01

Autumnal Reflections On The Forth 02

Autumnal Reflections On The Forth 06

In the distance in this one, you can see the tall, Victorian-era Wallace Monument, which celebrates the life of the great Scottish hero of the Wars of Independence, Sir William Wallace, whose greatest victory was at Stirling Bridge, not far from this spot.

Autumnal Reflections On The Forth 08

The Ochil Hills were catching the lat hour of daylight, the sun so low in the skies now it was stretched out to a beautiful, honey-gold colour. The river was very calm, this loop fairly far from the main roads, so also quiet and peaceful, just the sounds of the birds on the river.

Autumnal Reflections On The Forth 04

Autumnal Reflections On The Forth 09

Autumnal Reflections On The Forth 03

Autumnal Reflections On The Forth 012

Saint Cyprian’s in Autumn

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After days of heavy rains and dark, grey skies, for a few hours the sun started to peek out from behind the clouds, illuminating the autumn colours on the trees. Dad and I paused by Saint Cyprian’s in Lenzie – framed by the trees and their changing colours, with the autumnal light on the old stone of the 1873 church it was a rather beautiful scene.

Saint Cyprians In Autumn 01

Saint Cyprians In Autumn 02

The spire on Saint Cyprian’s boasts some handsome gargoyles at the top (if you are wondering about the difference, while gargoyles and grotesques are both sculpted forms of monsters, odd beasts or humans and have symbolic meaning, the grotesques are non-functional, purely decorative, while gargoyles contain water spouts for drainage, usually from the mouth).

Saint Cyprians In Autumn 03

Saint Cyprians In Autumn 04

Autumn scenes

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Autumnal scenes grabbed by my camera this year:

Conker Season 01

Conkers hanging heavy on the bough by the old boneyard on Dalry Road

Morning Light

Morning light illuminating leaves on my walk to work

Crab Apple

Autumnal crab apples

Autumn On The Links

Autumn colours on Bruntsfield Links

(as ever click on the pics to see the larger versions on my Flickr)

Autumn calls

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Despite some sudden bursts of very fine weather, summer is most certainly giving ground to the approach of autumn here now. Even if we get a warm, sunny day, the shadows are longer, and the sun sets earlier each evening, and when it does the temperature drops a lot quicker than it did in the middle of summer, while the early mornings are noticably cooler. But the light, on a sunny day at least, is now moving towards that glorious golden quality, while the leaves are turning on the trees, right now at that beautiful mix of still some leafy green mixed with increasing golds, reds and browns, and every day there are more fallen leaves along the pavements (yes, I have indulged in my first kicking a pile of dry autumn leaves into the air of the year, it has to be done).

Conker Season 03
The chestnuts are now large on the old tree leaning over the wall of the nearby boneyard, the boughs heavy, the conkers about to fall to the ground below (sadly the days when schoolkids grabbed them to play conkers with seems to be long gone, but it’s still nice to see this annual sight).

Autumn Apples
Autumnal apples approaching full size, hanging over a garden wall on my route home from work, sparking a sudden childish desire to go scrumping. And yes, I did say that partly because I wanted an excuse to use the word “scrumping”. As ever, click on the pics to see the lager versions on my Flickr site.

Autumn is knocking on the door

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Autumn Whispers Quietly in the Ear of Summer

Walking in the Hermitage of Braid today, near the foot of Morningside (Miss Jean Brodie country). The trees are still mostly resplendent in their verdant coat of summer greenery, but Autumn, Autumn is whispering in Summer’s ear “my turn is coming….”

Golden Apples of the Sun 03
Golden Apples of the Sun 01
Golden Apples of the Sun 02

Just outside the Hermitage, over a tall wall of an expensive house, the branches of its trees were laden with the autumn bounty of apples. And me there without my scrumping ladder to grab any…

Autumn Colours

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Autumn colours in Princes Street Gardens, just below the Castle:

The Autumn Leaves 03

And a closer look at the leaves as they change before falling – the grass below them was carpeted with fallen leaves of red and gold:

The Autumn Leaves 02

The Autumn Leaves 01

And while I was walking through the trees I met this charming wee, bushy-tailed chap:

Foraging Squirrel 03

Foraging Squirrel 02