October's Bright Blue Weather

Many, many years ago, when I was in elementary school, I learned a poem about October's Bright Blue Weather. Today I felt as if I was immersed in the poem, enjoying a picture-perfect October day at the Holden Arboretum. I came home with so many pictures, I didn't know which one to share with you. This beautiful sugar maple (acer saccharum) is the primary source for the sap that makes maple syrup, a major product of this area. It was the first thing I photographed when I parked my car and set out to wander down the trail, so that's what I decided to show you today. Although I saw much that was beautiful, the sugar maple takes the blip prize today. If you want to see more pictures of fall foliage from the Arboretum, you can find them in my photo blog (the web address is on my profile page).

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I found the poem. It's kind of long, but here it is for those of you who enjoy poetry. The author is Helen Hunt Jackson:

October's Bright Blue Weather[

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumblebee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O sun and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.


Night all! It's past my bedtime!