The Captured Glimpses Blog: Failing Days of Autumn

For me, the end of Autumn, the days around Halloween and the beginning of November, signify the end of the year. The holidays are their own season, the bridge between calendar years. In my mind, the year ends when the clocks change and the days become darker. Everything becomes quieter and subdued. The local festivities of September have ended, the Volksfests and outdoor concerts. The biergartens have been closed up.

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 24 Exposure: f/7.1 1/60 ISO 800

Camera: X-E2 Focal Length: 32.9
Exposure: f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1250

Autumn takes on a different significance here in rural Bavaria than it does in Northeast Ohio. People are more tied to the land and the harvest season is significant not because of pumpkin spiced everything or it being "sweater weather" again, but because it is still considered the time of year to prepare for Winter. The walnut trees are dropping their hard-shelled nuts along the paths and roads and every morning you can spot folks with bags and baskets competing with the crows in collecting them from the ground. Apples lay in piles in the orchards and in the evening the orchards' owners and their families are on ladders, picking the last from the branches. The apples are for eating, for selling, and for turning into juice and Apfelwein. The Schrebergarten have mostly yielded up their bounties for the year, but a few gourds and squash can be seen amongst the decaying leaves and shriveled vines, their white and golden bellies turned up to what remains of the watery daylight. The gardeners, and almost every Bavarian is a gardener, are raking mulch, burning leaves, tying up bushes in burlap, and cleaning out the bottles and other paraphernalia from the sheds. The ducks and swans have returned to the festplatz field in front of our house. Crows are roosting once again in the trees along the walking path. Spiderwebs woven in the night to the bridges and branches fall apart from the weight of the water drops which are strung on their fibers like so many crystal pearls. The leaves have mostly all changed now, but they haven't all fallen yet. I imagine in another week or two the brilliance of the leaves will have faded completely and the trees will be dormant and skeletal. For two weeks, we've been blanketed in thick, Ardennes levels of fog in the mornings. It is so thick the houses a few doors down are missing. The town across the river has completely vanished. As the sun creeps over the Spessart hills across the river, I hop aboard the Varsity and ride around the local bike paths from town to town snapping photos of leaves, the fog, and whatever else catches my eye. By the afternoon, the skies have cleared and the sun lights up the hills in all their brilliance before it sets at 5:00pm.

Before long, this time of year will come to an end. The leaves will be raked up and hauled off to the compost center at the edge of town or burned. It will rain almost every day. The land will go from gold and red to brown and grey. Of course, then it won't be too much longer afterwards that the Christmas season will amp into full swing. There will be lights in windows, markets to attend, and Glühwein to enjoy. But, for now, we'll reflect and bask in this quiet closing of the year.