My Autumnal Ireland

I could write a few volumes about autumn in Ireland but one simple image says more than I can actually verbalise. It is the delicate blooms of fuschia against an old whitewashed wall out in the countryside.

Tapestries of Autumn ~ Perspectives from Newtown Wood, Co. Waterford

Newtown Wood towards Tramore Bay at Dusk

Autumn is generally seen as a time when both the days and year are closing in. If we view life in seasonal terms, the Autumn of life is a time when the innocence of childhood and the colourful exuberance of young adulthood are behind us but we have both energy and a wealth of experience with which to enjoy life. There is a danger, though, that the mind can run ahead towards winter and the inevitable ending of our time.

One of the wonders of Autumn, for me, can be found in woodlands as night is falling. Last evening, I was walking in Newtown Wood, which is just outside Tramore in Co. Waterford.  It was getting dark and I was mesmerised by the way in which the shedding trees were allowing the last moments of daylight to pour down on the carpetted woodland floor.

Looking upwards, the undressing trees where revealing their magnificent shapes with wondrous and powerful clarity. The patterns that were presented to me in this natural movie were infinitely intricate and totally convinced me that Autumn is a time which has endless possibilities and openings that we may never have even contemplated before.

The following lines from The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde, which I first learned in the early Summer of my life, came flooding back like the stream that was gushing through Newtown Wood to meet the sea:

I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky