The Seasons
Welcome to fall!
An Introduction
This page is for the seasons. It is a place to celebrate the beauty of winter, spring, summer, and fall. Oftentimes, it is easy to become so buried in work, daydreams, or our innermost thoughts and worries that time soars past and the months blur into one—we lose ourselves in our heads. This is a reminder to look around you. Nature truly is a work of art, and we would be remiss to forget it.
Therefore, I dedicate this page to the seasons as they come and go. It is the small things, like the first frost of winter or a pile of pumpkins on the doorstep, that deserve to be recognized and appreciated. I’ve found that in searching for these subtle beauties, I realize the magnificence of the world around me, and am reminded that life will go on, even when I am sure it cannot.
Pumpkins! As the air turns cooler, and the leaves begin to crumple and fall, it becomes the perfect time to plant pumpkins. In a plot at the front of the yard, my brothers and I planted around thirty seedlings. Come October, we hope to have our own pumpkin patch.
Our pumpkins, about a month later. This is the same plant from the left, but now with vibrant, beautiful leaves. It is of the variety “Big Max,” known for its larger sized pumpkins and distinct white patterns of veins. To keep the deer away, we spray the plants with cooking spray and dust them with cayenne (talk about pumpkin spice).
Our first flower! The vibrant orange of this pumpkin blossom signifies that a pumpkin is soon to follow. At the bottom of this flower is where the actual fruit starts to form.
When the pumpkin is ready to grow on its own, the flower shrivels and falls off, leaving a round green bulb in its wake. In this picture (where my finger is pointing) you can see two baby pumpkins!
The beauty of autumn in Carolina never fails to render me speechless. In the backyard of my second home, the light filters through the telltale thin-trunked trees. Because of their intricate tendrils of branches, which weave themselves into a lovely pattern high above, beams of sunlight cast magnificent shadows across the yard—truly a sight to behold.
Out camping. Around mid-September, my friends and I took a weekend to go camping, phone, school, and stress free. Lucky for us, the campground had gained the first colors of autumn, with the trees around us dusted in orange and gold. The day was crisp, and the night clear. In the depths of the forest, we could see the stars quite clearly, counting and mapping each one with outstretched fingers.
Halloween pumpkin festival! For this celebration, Morristown held a pumpkin carving competition; each pumpkin was lit up with a candle and placed along the reflection pool of Jockey Hollow. Safe to say, there were smiles all around. 🎃
