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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Just Leaves


It is definitely, unmistakably fall now. The maple  leaves are turning the most brilliant colors.


Some trees are supposed to give fruit in the fall.



The persimmon with its orange baubles looks as if it is decorated for Halloween.


But for others, the rare fruit they are sprouting now is unseasonable and slightly disturbing, like the odd, last child of an overly fertile woman long past her prime.


Here is the last of the blackberries, ripening when the rest of the bush has gone dormant.


Here is the first cherry, nursing a single green fruit and willing it to ripen. Who is this cherry for? Who will get to eat it?


Right beside the first cherry tree, is the second cherry tree, with its seemingly pregnant open bloom.


Will this blossom come to fruition as well? And if so, what will become of the fruit?


There is one branch of the service berry by the fence line that still bears blossoms.


Will there be service berries for the deer to eat in November?


The deer are still coming by in the evening in the front yard, though they do seem a little more shy now.


They come with the setting sun, and they leave when they see me.


I read somewhere that the Japanese fry maple leaves and then eat them, and I wondered what Bow would do, if I offered him an assortment of leaves.

So this morning I went out to gather leaves in a Wal*Mart bag, and I brought them in to the pen for Bow to inspect.

Bow was not impressed. He took the first leaf out of the bag, turned it over then handed both  the leaf and the bag back to me.



I thought that perhaps if I laid them out on the floor, so he could see how different and varied they were, I could get him more interested in the leaves.


Bow was very patient with me. He lay down on the floor quietly while I arranged the leaves to my satisfaction.




Then, when he could tell I was done, he got up, picked up every leaf from the floor, picked up the bag and handed them all back to me, with an unmistakable  gesture that said: Get them out of here. After all, they were just dead leaves!


When I took the leaves away, Bow asked to go outside.


He inspected the view for a moment, and then he settled down on the rim of the bench in his favorite mode of relaxing.


Maybe Bow is right. Maybe I am blowing the symbolic significance of fall foliage entirely out of proportion. After all, they are just leaves!


6 comments:

  1. I think the leaves are pretty. Bow is a teenage boy and probably thinks "get this stuff away from me". I know my niece and nephew do not want to talk to me much these days. I do try, but they pretty much just ignore me.

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    1. Thanks, Julia. I think the leaves are pretty, too, but you are right about Bow being a teenager and wanting me to get this stuff away from him. It is too bad your niece and nephew are going through this aloof stage. They say teens need to do that in order to separate and individuate from the significant adults in their lives. But there is no cause to be rude, no matter what age we are. Hopefully, they will come around soon.

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  2. I agree: there is no need to be rude. I have tried to talk to them, and they just ignore me. Everyone says teens go through this aloof, moody, and rebellious phase, but maybe it is hard for me to relate because I never did. I was never a social butterfly, I am still not, but I never refused to talk to people and hid out when I was fourteen. I guess I just cannot relate to some teen issues.

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    1. I didn't go through classic teen rebellion, either. I was always somewhat shy, but I did not stop talking to family members or relating to them just because I was a teen. However, I sometimes wonder if I might have ventured out into more relationships with peers if I had not been so close to my parents. So when I see teens being rebellious, I always hope that some good will come of it, even if it is not pleasant to witness.

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  3. Aya, your pictures of the red maple leaves are wonderful! What a brilliant red! This post made me laugh - Bow's complete indifference to the leaves and handing them back to you was very funny. Teenagers just can't appreciate what joy there is in stopping and observing the leaves of fall!

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    1. Thanks, Kathy. I do love those red maple leaves! Bow is very pragmatic, though. If there were any nutritional value in the leaves, he would probably have reacted differently.I suspect the Japanese simply add oil and sugar to make a tasty treat out of maple leaves, with the contribution of the leaves being mostly decorative. Or maybe they add fiber.

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