As September winds down, autumn is making its presence known. This morning’s temperatures dipped into the 50s, and the air had that crisp feeling that’s so distinctive of fall. Here at Haywood Hall, some of our trees are beginning to show their fall colors as you can see in this photo I took last weekend. I was playing around with our old watering can, but the tree in the background almost steals the show.
It’s been raining for days here in Raleigh. Even as I write, I can hear the rain beating on the tin roof of the back porch. We did get a little bit of a break earlier today, so I took a quick walk through the gardens. I suspected that all this rain might have encouraged the first sprigs of spring, so I was on the hunt for those tiny buds. Intead I ended up focusing on the camillias, the flowers of winter.
It seems like this forsythia bush burst into bloom overnight. I know I saw a little color on it yesterday, but today it has been absolutely vibrant. I love looking out my back door and seeing these beautiful yellow flowers.
With yesterday’s photo of the brick walkway behind the barn, I spoke about taking the time to see what can so easily be overlooked. Today I went back to that same walkway and moved forward probably about ten steps from the point where I was standing yesterday. Ten steps forward and two hours later in the day, here’s how the view changed.
It’s easy to forget about the little path behind the barn. I never use this walkway into the gardens, and so I try to keep the gate closed. Occasionally, a visitor will forget and leave it open. Then I simply close it again without much thought. However, this morning I actually stopped to consider the scene before me. Sometimes it’s worth pausing to look beyond the fence.
It was absolutely gorgeous in Raleigh today, and everyone seems anxious to enjoy the beautiful weather. Throughout the day, I heard voices drifting in from the Haywood Hall Gardens as people wandered through on their downtown explorations. I was more than a little jealous because I had to spend most of the day indoors working on a school project that was due by 5:00 p.m. I pouted quite a bit, and I kept questioning why anyone would select the last day of spring break as a due date.
Through midday I took a break and to visit with a bride who is considering a wedding here in May. As we discussed possible set-ups for her ceremony, our attention was focused on the grape arbors. It’s amazing to think that within just a few weeks, they’ll be covered with green. For most of the year, they make pretty bookends for our patio area, but winter leaves them awfully bare.
After submitting my project this evening, I went back outside to photograph the arbors. In a few weeks, it’ll be nice to see how they’ve changed.
Grape arbor 2
