Missing Autumn

Where is fall?

I just put Gwen on the bus. While she ate breakfast this morning, we sat out on our little deck in short sleeves and shorts, reading library books. The sky is a beautiful Shanghai blue (not to be confused with a Carolina blue) today, and the sun is warm. It's been this way for weeks, just gorgeous weather. Mid-seventies during the day, sixty degrees at night. Lovely, really lovely. But something is missing.

There's not a maple tree to be seen in Shanghai, aside from the occasional small Japanese maple with it's lacy little leaves. There are some big brown leaves that we crunch through on the sidewalk outside our compound. There are some tiny red leaves falling here and there. But the majority of the trees around where we live keep their green leaves much of the winter. There isn't one brilliantly yellow, orange or red maple.

A few days ago I got an email from the property manager for our home in Chicago. He sends us updates from time to time and takes care of issues with our renters. This time he included photos in the email of the yard and house, highlighting various points of interest for us. As we've had some concerns about the life left in our driveway, there was a shot of the asphalt, strew with maple leaves. They were the leaves from the tree on our tree lawn, which I used to hate to rake up because their colors were so beautiful they looked like flowers. I clicked on the driveway picture to enlarge it and get a closer look at those beautiful leaves.

My mom took some fall photos around where my parents live and emailed them to me this morning. I literally gasped at the first one, featuring vibrantly colored maple trees.

Autumn in the Midwest is a stellar time. It may be brief, only a few weeks, really, of clear skies and amazing color, before the weather turns towards winter and cold, gray skies. But those October days are golden.

I haven't forgotten. :-)