Warm Glow

The huge ash tree in our backyard has turned the most vibrant color of golden-yellow I’ve ever seen. Actually, that’s not true. We see this color every year, and every year it astonishes us with its breathtaking beauty. Every year, we say to each other, “Have you ever seen such an unbelievably glorious color?” It shocks me every time I see it. There really are no words to describe it.

This weekend was rainy and dreary, yet there was a warm glow spilling into the kitchen from the backyard. The yellow of the ash tree was so bright that it made the whole backyard glow. I wanted to get a picture of it, but I knew it wouldn’t do it justice. Plus, I really wasn’t motivated to go out in the dampness in search of an illusive photo.

Today, I realized that the pile of leaves on the ground is getting bigger and bigger, so if I want to capture the essence of this color before it’s gone, I need to act quickly. So, I went out and took pictures of the leaves. I don’t have a fancy-schmancy camera, but I love my little Canon Digital Elph. She does what I need her to do, most of the time. Even she was shocked by the brilliance of the color, and it was more than she could handle. She was overwhelmed but did the best she could do.

So, these photos, while very pretty, really aren’t the reality of the situation. The magnitude of the color cannot be captured. These pictures will need to serve as a reminder for us. When we see these, we’ll remember that day in early autumn when it rained all day, but the kitchen was lit up by the warm glow of our ash tree.