Hmmm, are we grateful enough for the last bloom of autumn?
October has not been particularly kind to us in terms of weather. It has been largely a cold and wet month depriving us of the slow glide into winter. But it is making amends by going out with a final burst of warmth and colour.
And so it seems appropriate to offer a portrait of October splendour in photographs matching the last few winged wonders with some of the fall colours surrounding them.
Most of the Monarch butterflies have already embarked on their epic migration to the mountains of Mexico. But a few stragglers like this one remain to be admired. Matched with the puffball of a Milkweed plant since Monarchs depend on that plant for survival.
Sulphurs are always the last of the butterflies that are out and about in the fall. This Clouded Sulphur was making the most of the warm October day knowing that few such days remain. Matched with the feathery green needles of a Pine Tree that defies the seasonal change in colour.
Orange Sulphurs are a nearly identical sibling to the Clouded Sulphur. This one declined to spread its wings to display its orange markings but is no less striking for that disinclination. Matched with a newly fallen yellow leaf that had the good sense to land where the sun could find it and make it the center of attention.
Autumn is a metaphor for the seasons our lives must roll through – joy and sorrow, abundance and scarcity, affluence and hardship. We weather these seasons, often grudgingly, and are stronger for learning to live with both. If this is a winter season in your life, take heart. Another spring and summer are coming soon.
~ Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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Tags: autumn · butterflies · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments