Dan sent me this amazing photo of autumn in all her glory, taken close to where he lives, in Chicago (or is it near Chicago, Dan?).
The leaf colours are particularly spectacular this year....there's a reason for it (too much rain? not enough rain? wrong kind of sun?) but I can't remember what it is.
What's it like where you are?
Oh, and I'm playing word games over at ihearts presents - so do come and join in.
I live in a suburb of Chicago, Sharon. I'm about 30 miles southwest of the city. I caught this photo just as the sun was coming up - lighting the magnificent colors of autumn. Thank you for posting it; I'm glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo, Dan! The colour is so intense. It almost seems you can touch it.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me those evocative Dutch landscapes in the movie “Girl with A Pearl Earring”.
Don’t know why… It seems painted by Johannes Vermeer in person.
About where we are… Sharon, do you mean the rain or how it is the place during autumn?
In both cases – I can say that I hardly ever see autumn in Napoli. I mean, the passage from hot weather to cold one is often sharp and imperceptible. We live by the sea and it's often “crazy”. It has its own mood and feelings. Strange but true.
Weirdly, I love winter more than summer in Napoli. Summer is almost taken for granted here and we love it very much but, to me, winter has a special connotation in this part of the world.
I love living by the sea with the freezing wind caressing my face. I love driving my car and looking (for few seconds!) at the rain mixing with the dark sea. In another life, I must have been Russian, because I love cold! Sometimes we find autumn leaves outside the doors, on our cars… but who doesn’t live surrounded by a garden, by mountains or something like that hardly sees them falling. We find them accidentally while they cross our days – and often, we love it this way. And we know that autumn has come.
Michela, I find that an absolutely fascinating post - and now I stop to think about it, I guess I can't really imagine golden/bronzed leaves tumbling down on the streets of Naples. Do you have any big parks there?
ReplyDeleteI can imagine that the city must be especially beautiful in winter - I love the harsher, starker landscapes of that time of year. And as you know, my son tells me that Italy at Christmas time is the best place to be!
Back from a rainy day (to be in theme!) in Roma – cold and windy.
ReplyDeleteSadly, it wasn’t as being in Napoli… I couldn’t see the sea.
To me, there’s all the difference of this world.
Sharon – there are many big parks in Napoli, some are very famous and I love spending time there... going jogging? No. LOL! But once a painter portrayed me in the exquisitely crimson light of the sunset while I was sitting and reading on a bench.
The funny thing is that I only realized it later when he gave me the painting as a gift.
You’re right – it’s very hard to see the streets of Napoli full of autumn leaves and it’s hard (or rather impossible) to see snowing... in return, rain here has the pervasive smell of the sea mixed with salt coming from it.
I can’t explain it better by words, you have to live it. Or maybe I can smell it because I live here. Napoli is all about “sensations and perceptions” - from food to anything else. Even the more abstract one.
P.S. Maybe, in another life, your son was Italian or had a part of it inside of him too. :-)
x
The Falling of Leaves
ReplyDeleteAutumn is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.
The hour of the waning of love has beset us,
And weary and worn are our sad souls now;
Let us patt, ere the season of passion forget us,
With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.
William Butler Yeats
Thanks for the compliment, Michela. I'm not much of a photographer, but I'm learning. And thank you for the insight into your experiences of the seasons. Autumn in Italy sounds lovely. One day I must see it for myself.
ReplyDeleteSebastian: Wonderful.
Dan - you definitely must see it!
ReplyDeleteSebastian - heartbreakingly beautiful.