Autumn is my favorite time of year. Up in the high country (7,650 ft) at the White Wolf Mine, a neighbor from the other side of the ridgeline did something nice by taking some photos of the property and e-mailing them.

As a departure from the mundane and miserable that is American politics, I am sharing them as a celebration of the season.

Most of the trees are ponderosa pine and pinion pine, but there are oaks and maples here and there as well, which lend their distinctiveness more forcefully at this time of year. 
My daughter, Emilie, is moving home this weekend, and she may head up there with me on the next trip in a bit over a week. 
The place has it’s own brand of quiet, beauty and peace.

The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

28 COMMENTS

  1. Very pretty, LL: that is, until you have to rake up the leaves off of your manicured 40 acres of Kentucky blue grass.

  2. The beach is okay for a few days, but give me the beauty, the smell, and the sounds of the mountain woods. There is some quiet, but listen hard. The wind through the trees, the critters doing their thing. Except for a hard winter and snow, the forest is nature at her best.

  3. This area isn't known for hard winters, though I've been in that area when they got a foot or so of snow. More than that is unusual. The weather pattern is that most of the annual moisture falls by way of late summer monsoon.

  4. The election cycle has been a downer in all respects, as the nation and the culture circles the drain, amassing unsustainable debt.

  5. The area looks a lot like your stomping grounds without the Bay Area pukes who want to visit. And less snow in winter.

  6. How very beautiful! The Frost poem works wonderfully with the gorgeous photography. I might have to start calling you an "Art Philosopher" What a wonderful place to go and live. The road less travelled is always the wisest route.
    Nice Friday post to take us all away from the incessant drama. Ten outta ten on that.

  7. There is only one art philosopher and that's you.

    I'm merely an illegally parked car in the cul-de-sac of life who lucks into getting it right from time to time.

    The daily drama has boosted to such a fever pitch of absurdity, that I wonder if things will ever calm back to 'normal' (whatever that is).

  8. That's a pretty good neighbor. Better check for hobbits in those mossy logs. They're not much trouble, but you may catch a whiff of pipeweed now and then.

  9. I showed my wife some pix of Colorado this time of year, and she thought it was beautiful.

    Even though she was born in Iowa, and lived there off-and-on a few years at a time, she's basically a "California Girl", and has no experience with the changing of the seasons.

    The only thing about that that "bothered" me when I lived in Illinois, was that as the weather cooled and winter approached, you had Halloween! And then you had Thanksgiving! And then you had Christmas! And then you had New Year's! And then you had…..NOTHING but crummy weather until late March, early April when it was light longer, it warmed a bit, and most of the snow melted.

    But that's the Cycle of Life….Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

    I think it's late Fall for the USA. Just hope the winter we're heading into isn't too harsh….

  10. Beautiful piece!
    I am falling in love with Autumn here in Switzerland as well. The world needs beauty once in a while.

  11. I love Switzerland. I have family in Bern.

    The beauty of the world reminds me that there is still something outside of our reach that is reassuring.

  12. Bern is keeping me happy! I hope your family's doing well in here too.

    The outside is what keeps me going. Inside keeps giving up at times.

  13. Ya know, that Diavel may not suit your new digs quite so well- I am seeing you on some dualsport that will take you way way up in the hills….

  14. I'm keeping the Diavel because there are lots of winding paved roads for me to play on. I have dirt motor toys that will be moving with me for use primarily with grandkids.

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