Not Far From the Tree

"When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze."

Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Historian and Essayist ~1795-1881)

Yesterday I noticed a true sign that Summer is on the wane and Autumn is imminent. Not only do I see them, I hear them falling on the roof with a clatter, then rolling down and bouncing off the back deck. Some are still attached to sprays of leaves like this, bright green acorns stuffed into their little rough textured cups. Some years we have thousands fall from several mighty oaks on our property - they'd be ankle deep if we didn't sweep and blow often.

The first acorns of the season.

Background is Edith Holden's beautiful watercolor illustration in

The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady (1905).

"If the 24th of August be fair and clear

Then hope for a prosperous Autumn that year".