Look up!

I said those words to my three-year-old daughter last week as we were waiting for the school bus to bring her brother back home from kindergarten. Ever since I was a kid, I've thought that the best view of a tree was found by looking up through its branches, especially at this time of year, when the leaves have mostly fallen, leaving dark limbs silhouetted against the sky.

Yesterday was sunny and bright, a perfect day for gazing at these tree-skeletons, so I went outside with my camera and snapped a few shots. The first two are of the only tree in our front yard. There's something so dramatic and regal about it. I'm sure it would have some stories to tell.

 

 

The next shot is of my neighbor's trees. I love how delicate the branches seem, lacy against the sky—living poetry.

I'm sure it's no surprise that autumn is one of my favorite seasons. What do you enjoy most about fall?

Perspective

This morning's 100 words:

After dinner last night, as the kids played in their sandbox and I sat in a patio chair, watching them and reading, I did something I've since realized I rarely do: I looked up, and for the first time I really saw the sky, the robin's egg blue of it, its never-ending vastness awesome yet comforting at the same time, a mother folding her arms around her child. Birds soared, ascending through the blue, and squirrels leaped from tree to tree, dappled sunlight playing across their bodies.

Last night I realized how small I am.