# Anyone Else Fond of Autumn?



## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

It has always been my favorite season of the year. I know that summer is what features most in many minds, and certainly the darling of the press, but for me, autumn was always the most lovely and long anticipated season of the year. The end of long hot boyhood summers without air conditioning. The beginning of a new school year with new things to learn, new friends and teachers. And most dearly, *football!* Which I was mad to play from the age of 12 onward.

Late afternoon red-gold sun on brightly colored leaves turns trees into giant kaleidoscopic bouquets. Deeper shadow returns mystery to the world. The smell of wood smoke as my father lit the coal furnace for the winter. The sound of boyhood feet running through fallen leaves. Jumping into large piles of the same. And eventually burning these before anyone knew better not to. And Halloween, the second best holiday after Christmas which itself was the penultimate punctuation of the autumn season which included not just Halloween, but Thanksgiving also. But Christmas was the cherry on top.

When my interests passed beyond jumping in piles of leaves, and even football, to include more social pursuits, a far more avid interest in the fairer sex was accompanied by a greater interest in matters sartorial. In maturity this also included an autumn pilgrimage or two to Paul Stuart, Chipp and Tripler for furnishings for the season ahead. A time of year to start brushing off tweeds and making sure scarves and such are in decent repair.

And if you too are fond of Autumn, we are not alone -

https://autumncoziness.tumblr.com/archive


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## drlivingston (Jun 21, 2012)

Autumn is my favorite time of year. It signals the end of 95+ degree days. But most importantly, I can finally start wearing colors that actually compliment me instead of walking around looking like a reject from an 80's Wham video.


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

Summer is too hot to really enjoy here in Atlanta, so I'm always happy to welcome Autumn.

I plan on spending a week camping at Cloudland Canyon (a place famed for Autumn leaf viewing in Georgia) during the peak fall color season (trying to predict it now), and I will fortunately be in Japan during Autumn when the momiji are in full splendor - hopefully I'll make it to Kyoto to see the best of it.

Also: sweaters and tweed.

















DH


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## cellochris (Dec 14, 2015)

Dhaller said:


> Summer is too hot to really enjoy here in Atlanta, so I'm always happy to welcome Autumn.
> 
> Also: sweaters and tweed.





drlivingston said:


> Autumn is my favorite time of year. It signals the end of 95+ degree days.





Flanderian said:


> And most dearly, *football!*


Yes, yes and yes! I have some new tweed jackets I'm looking forward to wearing! And also looking forward to the AE Rediscover America sale in November


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Late Sunday morning the wife and I were in our favorite local restaurant enjoying breakfast after Sunday services and another older couple walked in, to an enthusiastic 'welcome back' by the restaurant staff...to which their reply was "they had returned a month early for the coming winter, to complete a little work on their house." The first of the "snowbirds" has flown south for the winter...Jeez Louise, it must be fall? LOL. 

PS: I do so love the fall season!


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Dhaller said:


> Summer is too hot to really enjoy here in Atlanta, so I'm always happy to welcome Autumn.
> 
> I plan on spending a week camping at Cloudland Canyon (a place famed for Autumn leaf viewing in Georgia) during the peak fall color season (trying to predict it now), and I will fortunately be in Japan during Autumn when the momiji are in full splendor - hopefully I'll make it to Kyoto to see the best of it.
> 
> ...


Magnificent color! Thank you!

About eight years ago flew to Chattanooga out of Raleigh in November and was astounded and delighted by the amount of color up and down the Appalachians.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

eagle2250 said:


> Late Sunday morning the wife and I were in our favorite local restaurant enjoying breakfast after Sunday services and another older couple walked in, to an enthusiastic 'welcome back' by the restaurant staff...to which their reply was "they had returned a month early for the coming winter, to complete a little work on their house." The first of the "snowbirds" has flown south for the winter...Jeez Louise, it must be fall? LOL.
> 
> PS: I do so love the fall season!


Take up skiing. (You know, that sport where you strap boards on your feet and fall down a mountain in bad weather!) Then you can become a reverse snowbird!


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

I definitely would welcome Autumn right now. August was such a very hot month for New York City that I would take cool nights instead of warm sultry ones. Autumn is also the time I can wear my overcoats.


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## Andy (Aug 25, 2002)

Autumn is my favorite season (although I do enjoy the December Holidays)! I like the colors, wearing sweaters, cords, heavier jackets. My only problem is I live in an area where mid-Winter, at night, only gets down to 50F.


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## ran23 (Dec 11, 2014)

time to pull the veggie garden down in the PNW. Looking forward to my tweeds.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Andy said:


> Autumn is my favorite season (although I do enjoy the December Holidays)! I like the colors, wearing sweaters, cords, heavier jackets. My only problem is I live in an area where mid-Winter, at night, only gets down to 50F.


That can be fixed.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

My country cottage come October! :thumbs-up:


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

^^
Lovely, but I must ask, do you rake your own leaves when they fall? LOL.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

eagle2250 said:


> ^^
> Lovely, but I must ask, do you rake your own leaves when they fall? LOL.


Nope! Mickey does it for me. :siesta:


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Autumn is also a time when I can go back to wearing my dress shirts and ties again.


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## 16412 (Apr 1, 2005)

Yesterday was the first day with the smell of Autumn.


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## 16412 (Apr 1, 2005)

This view is about an hour to an hour and a half away. The blueberries and huckleberries are also good eating this time of year up there.

The picture is Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake. Artist Point is further up the road. Up there, at Artist Point parking lot, you can look at Mt. Baker, then turn about 180 degrees and look at Mt. Shuksan. One popular hike from there is Table Mountain. Mt. Baker ski area is in between Picture Lake and Artist Point.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Autumn is also a time to buy everything "pumpkin spice".


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## 16412 (Apr 1, 2005)

This one trail, nearby, would have about an ankles depth of big leaf maple leafs I'd walk through. Then the trail became popular, so the leaves became trod under. Nowadays, the city takes a leaf blower through there several times in fall. The pleasure of walking through ankle deep leafs is gone. But, nice memories.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

I like to leave the windows open and let the cool breeze blow in.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Howard said:


> I like to leave the windows open and let the cool breeze blow in.


I'm with you, Howard! :thumbs-up:

But not much of that today I'm affraid. Wait until this coming Sunday or next Thursday, different matter.

Ahhh . . . !


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Flanderian said:


> I'm with you, Howard! :thumbs-up:
> 
> But not much of that today I'm affraid. Wait until this coming Sunday or next Thursday, different matter.
> 
> Ahhh . . . !


This past August has been the most warmest and hottest on record and we were about 10-15 degrees above normal, some days we were about 95-100 and August should be 85. So I am definitely looking forward to Autumn and the cool nights again. The electric bill is probably going to be huge.


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## jpgr (Sep 2, 2016)

Of course. Fall is my favorite season. In NE Ohio, it's a beautiful time of year with easy outdoor conditions. I'm a long-distance runner, and by the end of August, I've simply had it with trying to run outdoors . . . I can handle icy cold conditions in the winter, and I can handle running in the spring rain, but the heat and humidity of August just wear me down to the point where I stop. Then fall comes, and mornings are crisp and cool. And I just beg to be outside all day.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

jpgr said:


> Of course. Fall is my favorite season. In NE Ohio, it's a beautiful time of year with easy outdoor conditions. I'm a long-distance runner, and by the end of August, I've simply had it with trying to run outdoors . . . I can handle icy cold conditions in the winter, and I can handle running in the spring rain, but the heat and humidity of August just wear me down to the point where I stop. Then fall comes, and mornings are crisp and cool. And I just beg to be outside all day.


I love the Fall season too, it's the time when I can keep my AC off for good and keep my windows open on cool crisp nights.


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## KateSmall (Sep 20, 2016)

September is my favorite month! I become melancholic and quit.
The best time to the long walk.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

It's also the season when I can fill up on hot beverages.


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## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

Tweed, upland bird shooting, fall salmon runs, sweaters on young ladies, hot buttered rum, dark red wines and imperial stouts, braised meat dishes and pies, winter squash . . . shall I go on? Spring may be the season when a young man's fancy turns to love but I'm a long way from young. Let us celebrate autumn.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

My most motivational affinities for the approach and incidence of autumn have been reduced to just two...lower ambient air temperatures and lower humidity levels! Fall, Winter....bring em on baby! LOL.


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## 16412 (Apr 1, 2005)

Oldsarge said:


> Spring may be the season when a young man's fancy turns to love but I'm a long way from young. Let us celebrate autumn.


Does that mean you have a casket ready for winter?

Couldn't avoid a sense of humor here.


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## jpgr (Sep 2, 2016)

eagle2250 said:


> My most motivational affinities for the approach and incidence of autumn have been reduced to just two...lower ambient air temperatures and lower humidity levels! Fall, Winter....bring em on baby! LOL.


You said it! It's just better to be outside in the fall!


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

jpgr said:


> You said it! It's just better to be outside in the fall!


It sure is, nice cooler temperatures make it refreshing to be outside plus you have crunching of the pile of leaves.


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## DougN (Feb 6, 2016)

Autumn is my favorite season. I love the temperature change, the shorter days or longer nights, the changing of the colors - though that is limited where I live in California. It's also a great time for photography.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Drei mehr -


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Absolutely stunning pics. Thank you for sharing them!


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Flanderian said:


> Drei mehr -


very nice pictures Flanders.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

eagle2250 said:


> Absolutely stunning pics. Thank you for sharing them!





Howard said:


> very nice pictures Flanders.


Glad you enjoyed them, gentlemen! :cofee:


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## jpgr (Sep 2, 2016)

A little small, but it's a beautiful fall shot from Kamikochi, Japan.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

jpgr said:


> A little small, but it's a beautiful fall shot from Kamikochi, Japan.
> 
> View attachment 16554


That's spectacular beauty, thank you!


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

No good jpeg goes unstolen. (I know that's not a word, but it should be.)

The long road home.










On the way to Flanderian's house -










Almost there!


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Flanderian said:


> No good jpeg goes unstolen. (I know that's not a word, but it should be.)
> 
> The long road home.
> 
> ...


You live around there Flanders?


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Howard said:


> You live around there Flanders?


Sure! The big white house just up ahead. The one with the spires. :happy:


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

I adore both Spring and Autumn equally.

This image (not one taken by myself) is of the woodland out front of my apartment. The stack of boulders, just off centre of the picture, has provided a rustic perch for many of my solitary and contemplative pipe chomping sessions.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Shaver said:


> I adore both Spring and Autumn equally.
> 
> This image (not one taken by myself) is of the woodland out front of my apartment. The stack of boulders, just off centre of the picture, has provided a rustic perch for many of my solitary and contemplative pipe chomping sessions.
> 
> View attachment 16568


Beautiful!

Reminds me of a walk I took with my first girlfriend.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Thank you, Howard, that's lovely!

Is that the view from your front porch?


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)




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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Flanderian said:


> Thank you, Howard, that's lovely!
> 
> Is that the view from your front porch?


No, just a random photo from the internet.


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## ThomGault (Oct 6, 2016)

Flanderian said:


> My country cottage come October! :thumbs-up:


Where is this?


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

ThomGault said:


> Where is this?


That is Schloss Neuschwanstein - you don't often see autumn photos of it.

DH


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

The Cairngorms, near Aviemore on Saturday, at lunchtime


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## Gurdon (Feb 7, 2005)

*Yes...*

..., I am fond of autumn.

I grew up in the West, mostly in California. I experienced the change of seasons, and extreme, even dramatic, weather. We have snow, cold, gale force winds, wildfires, flash floods. We have fall. We do not, however, have the colors of a Northeastern autumn.

My first Eastern fall was spent in the Hudson Valley. As the leaf change progressed I was overwhelmed by the extent and intensity of the colors of the foliage. The nearly unbearable colors were accompanied by changes in the weather and the quality of the light. I had an attack of landscape painting, which did not last, I believe because the representation of the visual does not adequately represent the entirety of experience.

Experiencing half a dozen Eastern autumns taught me to appreciate the season elsewhere. It is subtler, sometimes elusive, in the hot parts of California. It is colorful, and over almost before you realize it, in the colder and higher parts of the Mountain West. Everywhere autumn is more than a recitation of its various attributes.

There is much more to enjoy; wool, apples, birds, venison, woodsmoke, various brownish liquids, the harvest moon.

Gurdon


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## Repington (Dec 9, 2014)

John Keats "To Autumn":

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)




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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

"The view from my window!"


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Flanderian said:


> "The view from my window!"


Flanders, those are really nice and bursting with colors.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Howard said:


> Flanders, those are really nice and bursting with colors.


Thank you!

"Fenameli kiki bobo!"

Edit: Explanation of arcania. :redface:


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Autumnal evening sky in rural Cambridgeshire. Views from my garden. 
(I don't know why they have uploaded upside down but I can't seem to correct this!


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Chouan said:


> View attachment 16594
> View attachment 16595
> 
> 
> ...


Lovely! Thank you!


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Flanderian said:


> Lovely! Thank you!


My pleasure. Our morning and evening skies have been breathtaking of late. This was last night:













Again, despite being the right way round on my laptop, they've uploaded upside down.....


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Chouan said:


> My pleasure. Our morning and evening skies have been breathtaking of late. This was last night:
> View attachment 16597
> View attachment 16598
> 
> Again, despite being the right way round on my laptop, they've uploaded upside down.....


My goodness! You certainly are catching your share of lovely sunsets, aren't you!


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

*Autumn's Bounty -

*


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## BlindedToucan (Oct 15, 2016)

Favorite season by a large margin.

Not too cold, but not too warm so you can't layer. Not too sunny, and it doesn't rain much either. It is somber yet serene.

Too bad Canada doesn't have much of a autumn. It's summer and winter plus transitional weeks.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

BlindedToucan said:


> Favorite season by a large margin.
> 
> Not too cold, but not too warm so you can't layer. Not too sunny, and it doesn't rain much either. It is somber yet serene.
> 
> *Too bad Canada doesn't have much of a autumn. It's summer and winter plus transitional weeks.*


I hadn't considered that.

My wife and I are longtime vacationers in north central Vermont and yesterday were discussing the great differences in the autumn foliage display in various parts of the U.S. and the likely role that climates play in them. We noted that northern New England's color can be spectacular but is brief compared to what is more typical in mid-Atlantic states such as New Jersey. Commonly, the foliage season in that part of Vermont is only about two weeks, whereas in our area it is more usual for it to last a month, and sometimes even more, being both more gradual, but less intense.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Flanderian said:


> *Autumn's Bounty -
> 
> *


nice picture.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Howard said:


> nice picture.


Thanks! That's next to my neighborhood Shopright.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Autumn colours from my garden:













Acer and Chrysanthemum


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Salvia, with a Magnolia behind it.







Olive, with olives!







The Chrysanthemums should flower right into December. I've just planted some Cyclamen, which should provide colour right through the winter.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Chouan said:


> Autumn colours from my garden:
> View attachment 16619
> View attachment 16620
> 
> Acer and Chrysanthemum





Chouan said:


> Salvia, with a Magnolia behind it.
> View attachment 16621
> 
> Olive, with olives!
> ...


Lovely! :thumbs-up:

(Ah, how I enjoy admiring *other people's* gardens! )


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Friday morning in Cambridgeshire, near Ely






The right way round, for a change......
I took some good views of York on Friday and Saturday, but the files are too big, apparently, so I'm unable to share them with you all.
Ely Cathedral on Saturday afternoon:






Upside down this time......


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Again, Ely Cathedral on Saturday afternoon:


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Evening sky in rural Cambridgeshire on Saturday.


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

I'm heading to Tokyo on Sunday to spend a month in Japan, so I'll be there for the momiji season (when the whole country is swathed in reddened and golden maples).

I'm spending a few days with friends at their house in Hiroshima, and we'll have a day trip to Miyajima island, where they celebrate (like many places in Japan) having a leaf-viewing party with tea and cakes. Miyajima's specialty is a maple-shaped cake called a Miyajima manju, which is filled with jam, cream, or bean paste, sliced, and enjoyed with tea.


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