Autumnal

The summer-flower has run to seed,
And yellow is the woodland bough;
And every leaf of bush and weed
Is tipt with autumn’s pencil now.
And I do love the varied hue,
And I do love the browning plain;
And I do love each scene to view,
That’s mark’d with beauties of her reign

Beneath a yellow fading tree,
As red suns light thee, Autumn-morn,
In wildest rapture let me see
The sweets that most thy charms adorn.
O while my eye the landscape views,
What countless beauties are display’d;
What varied tints of nameless hues, —
Shades endless melting into shade.

The leaves forsake the willow grey,
And down the brook they whirl and wind;
So hopes and pleasures whirl away,
And leave old age and pain behind.
The thorns and briars, vermilion-hue,
Now full of hips and haws are seen;
If village-prophecies be true,
They prove that winter will be keen.

The verses are from John Clare’s poem “Autumn”, the flowers are the ones in Church at the Big Welcome on Sunday morning [I love their glorious autumnal hues] and the bottom picture [nothing autumnal at all] is one of the children in Church . She collected some of the jigsaw piece invitations and started to join them up along the pew. What was wonderful was seeing that other members of the congregation noticed, and slipped over during the hymns to give her even more pieces to join on!

We are past the Equinox now, and getting really autumnal weather round here these last few days!