Signs of Autumn in the Garden

This time of year is newly bittersweet for me. I have always loved the fall, but this year, along with fleeting rushes of colder weather and tinges of orange and yellow on the backyard leaves, I have experienced waves of sadness. It was just a year ago--hard to believe how quickly it's gone by--that I was sitting alongside my dad in his hospital room. I really miss him this fall. As soon as the calendar flipped to October, it seems, my emotions began a daily ebb and flow.

This afternoon, I stepped outside and noticed shades of autumn beginning to peek out from the garden. Taking photographs is not only my favorite creative outlet, it's also a tribute to my father in some ways. He's the one who gave me my first real camera and inspired my love of taking photographs. He always loved taking photos himself, and never missed an opportunity to capture any tourism landmark, every single Christmas morning moment (while we stood chomping at the bit to tear open our stockings,) and even the first Starbucks he visited--as if it was a novelty.

He left me with several of his old cameras that I need to try out one of these days. My dad enjoyed gardening too, and I thought of him a lot today as I crouched in the yard capturing images of this season of change...