As time moves toward the shorter days with quieter times of winter and coldness, you only see a few hardy birds because the little ones fly south for the warm weather and sunny days.

And you begin to see the wonder in the colorful  yellow and orange scenes and rich clover smells of autumn; promising yourself that you will love autumn and its wonder instead of dreading the winter that follows!

The tiny bits of autumn in its glory

The mellow and the bright colors of fall
On this mellow autumn day I sit by a pond watching fish jump up out of the water as they see me approach and a large blue and white blue jay flies by toward a weeping willow as if to tell me to stay away from his tree; he glides close to my head and then glides not so gently into the tree, watching me carefully from above.

 
The crows notice but stay away from the Blue jay, tending to some scrap of bread that they found near the street; flying away every time a car goes by and then returning to the McDonald’s bag that someone had thrown out of a car window.

I begin to wonder if that is why the crows seem bigger to me then they used to because they may have a diet of French fires and burgers.

And as the wonder of the day passes back to my meditative walk, I see the man who walks every day  wearing a plaid red and black flannel shirt and chestnut colored pants; he has his large stick with him to give him some balance as he walks briskly down the street, waving at me with his soft smile.