Autumn Rambles

I have just returned from a lavish mother's day breakfast at Sophie's school, followed by a beautiful mother's day tea at Cameron's, and am feeling rather spoiled.  I think I like having this particular day occur in the opposite season to the one to which we are accustomed.  Fall, or autumn as it is called here, has long been my favorite time of year. 

It therefore seems like an appropriate time to share some of my favorite photos from the many that I have been taking on our walks through our neighborhood in the past few weeks.  Autumn has turned out to be a gorgeous season, far prettier than I would have expected, thanks to the abundant sunshine, as well as to the European trees brought here in the first part of the last century.  There is a move to re-plant with native trees, and whilst I do understand the rationale for that, I am enjoying the beautiful crimsons, oranges and yellows that have been around for many weeks now, far longer than we get to enjoy them in Pittsburgh.

A quick check of the origins of the word fall confirms what I thought I had read in the not-too-distant past.  Before the 16th Century, the word harvest was the term most commonly employed to refer to the season following summer.  It was gradually replaced with  fall, a word coming from the old Germanic languages, and autumn, ultimately from Latin.  The expressions fall of the leaf and fall of the year were common in Middle English, and likely that is how fall came to be used to refer to the season in British English.  The popularity of its usage in England coincided with the time that the pilgrims were emigrating to North America.  They took the word with them and continued to use it, whilst in Great Britain, autumn became the preferred term. We are working hard to remind ourselves to use autumn during our time in Australia.

Happy Mother's Day to the all the mums out there!

Comments

[janetjames]

And a Happy Mother's Day to you too! Our family is going to a nice little restaurant in Perth, called Fiddleheads, for a Mother's Day brunch, after church.Fall looks beautiful in Melbourne.

[Suzanne Pannelle]

LOVE the beautiful pictures!! The colors are so vibrant and your awesome camera and photography skills have captured them well. It's funny that I just sent you an email asking how the colors were on the leaves and here they are - Although, I think they were posted before I asked! :) I love the pictures in the stream also. If it were my kids, I think I would blow the one up of Sophie and James playing by the water and hang it on the wall somewhere. Just beautiful!
I am so glad it is an extended season there. So many times our leaves are beautiful, but you only have a few days to enjoy them before a good wind and rain put them all on the ground. Enjoy!