Autumn

I really can't get over what a spectacular fall it's been here.  It's almost as if God said, "Alana, I know you don't really want to be here right now, but I'm going to make it so beautiful that it will be almost impossible for you to not enjoy it."  Perhaps a bit fanciful, but that has indeed been the case.  Sunny days, blue skies, yellow leaves, bluish mountains, golden brown fields...

It may not have the reds and oranges that make fall memorable in other places, but it's the most brilliant fall I've seen here for years.  It's made me wish that I were a poet so that I could more fully do justice to the feelings it evokes in me, to be able to describe the crisp, fragrant air, the whiff of cottonwood sap, the scent of gently decaying leaves tantalizing the nostrils.  Unfortunately, since smells and feelings cannot be properly captured, I must content myself with pictures, though these also don't do justice to the season.  

I never get tired of looking out my window to the cottonwoods at the end of our pasture and the Spanish Peaks beyond them.  Sometimes the gold leaves and blue mountains shimmer under the fluffy white clouds that float in a peerless blue sky.  

Sometimes the mountains are shrouded in clouds and snow.

 And sometimes it's a mixture.

Oddly enough, though, that is about as close as the snow has come.  Halloween came and went without a snowstorm or freezing temperatures, a happenstance that is almost unheard of.  The unseasonably warm temperatures even allowed me to take a trip up into the mountains...

...to this waterfall.

 It may not hold the record for "tallest" or "widest" or "most water," but I tend to think it's quite spectacular.

I think the forecast calls for snow soon, though.  I've managed to adjust to autumn fairly well; we'll see how I do with winter!