High Altitude Hot Air

The view from 6200 feet...

sierrasong

sierrasong
Location
Lake Tahoe, Nevada,
Birthday
May 04
Title
Benevolent Dictator
Company
Middle School
Bio
Nearly 30 years in the middle school biz...hope to graduate one of these days! Have taught English, choral music, drama, computer applications and just about anything else you can imagine. Oh, and how can I forget publications...I'm responsible for the yearbook and the school newspaper. Also did a stint as the librarian. Wide ranging interests and a long-time Salon addict. Two kids, two grandsons and a dog round out the picture! Originally from Marin (go figure) but 32 years at Tahoe has definitely spoiled me. To quote Nora Ephron, "I feel bad about my neck."

MY RECENT POSTS

Sierrasong's Links

Salon.com
Editor’s Pick
OCTOBER 20, 2008 1:32PM

"Autumn makes me sing..."

Rate: 13 Flag

SunflowerBee

"Summer makes me drowsy, autumn makes me sing.  Winter's pretty lousy, but I hate spring."   Dorothy Parker

Dewy beats Truman

"Thou blossom bright with autumn dew..."    William Cullen Bryant

Still life with pumpkins 

"I trust in nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility.  Spring shall plant, and autumn garner to the end of time." Robert Browning

Twins 

 "Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree."  Emily Bronte

Trees

"But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons  in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees." C. S. Lewis

Upward to sky 

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!"  Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rose fruit 

"On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where fruits were jewels..."  Charles Dickens

Steps to fall

"Now autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods, and day by day, the dead leaves fall and melt..."  William Allingham

Sun and flower

"Just before the death of flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season
When nature is all aglow."
   Author unknown

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Comments

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I love these photos Marsh. Such great color. I love the fall (though we don't really have it here). Well done and thanks.
Boy, did you capture the autumn light! The quotations are lovely accompaniments.
^ sorry, typing too fast Marsha.
Oh, the beauty inspires! Thank you!
Marsha, in both words and photos you have captured the essence of Autumn beautifully.
Marsha, these are beautiful. Are those your pumpkins? (Not meaning to imply that you are raiding someone else's pumpkin patch, of course.) I've a fondness for all the things you have photographed--a random red berry, wooden steps scattered with leaves, a bee on a sunflower, and colors colors colors!

Thank you.
Oh, thank you all. You are quite dear to me and I wanted to give something back for all your wonderful pieces and friendship. Barry - your comments make me proud - I will repeat - I want a real camera!!!

Susan, yes! Those are last year's pumpkins. I was out cutting them with a friend and happened to lay the big ol' pumpkin cutters on the ground and thought, "Hmmm. That would make a good still life." The berry is actually a wild rose hip seen on one of my afternoon rambles with my dog and the steps by a creek near my home. I've learned to just keep my eyes open for beauty when I'm outside, especially in the fall. I'm blessed with beautiful surroundings and I'm so glad to be able to share them with you all.
Really lovely. Thank you.
Marsha, you give me too much credit as you can see you've struck a chord with so many...the truth is that these photos of yours are wonderfully done, beautifully themed and connected, perfectly captioned. Very, very nice presentation. Wonderful photos--I would be very proud of these too.

I have a shot taken many years ago, from behind Magdalene College, where C.S. Lewis taught that your slanting sunlight on the path through the trees reminds me of--a lot. He would walk that path with Tolkien, or Williams, or some other friend, and they would read their latest chapters out loud while walking. It's buried in my slide archives somewhere. I need to make time to scan some slides. Thanks again.
I'd love to see those, Barry...
I love the way you found quotations to put with the pictures. What a great idea. Thanks for the lovely post.
I love these pictures Marsha! The colors are stunning and waking me up. It's an unusually gray dark morning in Colorado. We had a weekend like these pictures...thank you for them!
Oh god, these are lovely. Perhaps some of the loveliest things I have seen.
Updated to add one more picture...
These are all my favorite colors!

Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.
David Letterman
Lovely pics! Thanks for sharing.

(note to self: get the damn camera out already and get busy)
How in the world did I miss this? These are fabulous, Marsha. Really capture the season so well.

Thumbed, and I'd thumb them again if I could. :-D
Exceptional use of vignetting and flash control for highlights and f stops for the focus of the subject -- wow! not only does she write, she lights as well! I am far too hyper-self-critical for ME to use some of these photos, but your eye is far more subtle than mine! If only **I** could learn that the sun does not need a color to be the sun! But then I've only been shooing since I was about 9 years old. Some day I'll learn. I figure I still have 20-30 years . . . It only took me 25-30 years to learn that for me it takes two for me to take a photo one to take it, another to stop me from tossing the good ones. Just another facet of self-discovery she's mastered.

But where is the HaikuL

Soon it will die,
yet no trace of this
in the Cicadas screech.
Beautiful work, Marsha. It makes me feel fall.
Beautiful! Those scenes will be here in our region in about 3 to 4 weeks. Should be sooner but summer is really hanging on around NE Ohio.

Monte